This incident happened September 4th. This “cop behaving badly” incident is seriously over the top and with the release of this video will surely hit the national media toot sweet.
The 31 year old South Carolina State Trooper, Sean Groubert, shot Mr. Levar Jones, 35, for absolutely the most ridiculous reason. In addition to all the other factors (You have to watch the video) the trooper is white and the victim is black.
I don’t know how the position of being a police officer factors into the charges, but this officer -on it’s face- should consider himself fortunate to only be facing Felony Assault and Battery. Unreal stupidity and negligence; completely indefensible.
COLUMBIA, SC — An S.C. trooper who stopped a man for a seat belt violation outside Columbia and then shot him – apparently without provocation – was arrested Wednesday and charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.

Sean Groubert, 31, a lance corporal who was fired from the Highway Patrol after the shooting incident, now faces 20 years in prison if convicted of wrongfully shooting the driver, Levar Jones.
Groubert was booked Wednesday evening at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. He was fired from the patrol last Friday.
Wednesday night, in a hearing at the jail, Magistrate Ethel Brewer set Groubert’s bond at $75,000.
A video of the Sept. 4 shooting incident was played at Groubert’s bond hearing.
The video shows Groubert firing repeatedly at Jones, who was not armed and who was not behaving aggressively. Jones was struck at least once, in the hip. He spent time in the hospital and is now out of the hospital recuperating. (read more)

ps. Based on the beginning of the video I’m not buying the whole “seatbelt violation” either.  AND my suspicion is the state police department involved worked to keep that video under wraps until they *had to* release it.
Another ARTICLE HERE