Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager has been sentenced to 19 to 24 years in prison for killing 50-year-old unarmed black man Walter Scott in 2015.

U.S. District Judge David Norton overseeing the case determined that Slager committed second-degree murder and obstruction of justice for the unjustified shooting. This past May, Slager pleaded guilty for shooting Scott in the back as he ran from arrest, violating the victim's civil rights. 

The state retrial and federal trial were expected to take place this year, but instead, the May guilty plea ended the federal case against him and also resolved the state charges that were pending after the mistrial, per ABC News.

On April 4, 2015, Slager pulled over Scott, a veteran and father, during a traffic stop for a broken brake light. Scott fled the vehicle and the scene and ran down the street. The North Charleston Police officer was caught on damning video showing that he fired his weapon eight times into Scott's back as the victim ran away in an open field.

Slager claimed at the time of the shooting that he felt threatened and that Scott attempted to take his taser. However, as the case continued in court, that was found to be untrue.

ABC News reports that Norton will announce the amount of time Slager will serve within that range later today but Slager could have faced life in prison. Earlier this week, Scott's youngest son Miles Scott said he hoped his father's killer received life in prison.

"I think everybody's just ready to close this chapter of life and start the next chapter," Scott family lawyer Justin Bamberg said. "But all of them end the same way, and that is that Walter's not here."