Frame 394

The young Canadian virtual reality expert Daniel Voshart had no idea what he was getting himself into when he created a 3-D analysis of one of the most-discussed police shootings in recent American history. On April 4, 2015, the police stopped Walter Scott for a non-functioning brake light. Scott ended up getting shot to death, and a video surfaced that was shot by a passerby. Already intrigued by the footage, which showed the white police officer shooting the black man eight times in the back as he ran away, Voshart only became truly alarmed upon reading in the New York Times that “the officer dropped an object near Mr. Scott.” Voshart analyzes the amateur footage with advanced computer techniques and posts his version online. The GIF with the tagline “South Carolina cop planting a Taser next to body of Walter Scott” quickly kicks up a storm, invoking mostly hate comments. Shocked, the Canadian digs deeper for the truth and finds frame number 394. This fascinating story is an important contribution to the heated debate about police racism.