SC coroner rules death of unarmed black man ‘suicide by cop’

CHARLESTON — The death of a black man who was fatally shot by police in South Carolina after a high-speed car chase on Saturday was a case of "suicide by cop," a county coroner said on Tuesday.

Shamir Palmer, 24, died of a gunshot wound to the chest when he intentionally confronted police officers, Christopher Nisbet, coroner for Dorchester County outside Charleston, said in an email to Reuters, describing the incident as "suicide by cop."

"The definition of suicide is the taking of one's own life or creating conditions leading to it," Nisbet said.

Palmer, 24, had also made a statement to a friend that he "was not going to back to prison, period," Nisbet said.

State troopers were pursuing Palmer, of Ridgeville, South Carolina, because they believed he had been involved in a shooting there, according to officials. Police reported that someone in the Chevrolet Tahoe that Palmer was driving had fired a shot at them.

The chase reached speeds of more than 100 mph before it ended when Palmer lost control of his vehicle and "spun head on into a tree," the police report said.

Palmer got out of the vehicle with a weapon, police said. Deputies shouted at him to surrender and then fired their weapons at him, authorities said. Police recovered what they believe was the suspect's weapon at the scene, authorities said.