SC trooper charged with felony assault in shooting

COLUMBIA, S.C. — An unarmed man shot by a South Carolina trooper during a traffic stop repeated one question through his anguished cries as he lay wounded, waiting for an ambulance: “Why did you shoot me?”

In a video captured by a dashboard camera in the patrol car, then-Trooper Sean Groubert told Levar Jones it was because he “dove head first” back into his car. Jones said he was just reaching for his license as Groubert had instructed. Groubert’s lawyer says the officer justifiably feared for his life.

But prosecutors and Groubert’s boss disagreed. The 31-year-old officer was charged with felony assault and fired less than three weeks after the Sept. 4 traffic stop at a Columbia convenience store over a seatbelt violation.

Jones is recovering from being shot in the hip.