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Patrolman Michael Slager, 33, opened fire on father-of-four Walter Scott, 50, in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday morning after reportedly stopping him over a broken tail light.
Slager was arrested, jailed and charged with murder yesterday afternoon after the incendiary footage emerged.
An outraged representative of Scott's family said: 'This was a cop who felt like he could get away with just shooting anybody that many times in the back.'
The killing comes at a time of mounting unrest over police use of force - particularly against black men - after violent protests erupted over the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson last summer.
Slager had previously defended his actions as being in line with procedure, saying he 'felt threatened' by the Coast Guard veteran.
The officer claimed Scott ran away after being pulled over at which point he tried to Taser him.
But he claimed Scott managed to wrest the stun gun away, prompting him to draw his pistol.
At no point in the video, which does not show the initial contact between the men, does Scott appear to be armed.
In the footage, Scott gets a few yards away before Slager opens fire - seven shots in quick succession followed by an eighth, with three of them missing.
Scott collapses face-down on a patch of grass. Slager then walks over, shouts at him to put his hands behind his back, then handcuffs him.
Footage then appears to show Slager jogging back to the point where the Taser fell to the ground, bringing it over to Scott's body around 30 feet away and dropping it next to him.
According to police reports, officers performed CPR on the victim.
But video shows that Scott remained face down on the floor for several minutes without being given any medical attention.
It is only after two-and-a-half minutes that Slager is seen placing his hand on Scott's neck in an apparent attempt to check his pulse.
A black colleague then arrives and puts on blue medical gloves before handling the body, but is not seen performing any first aid.
They are later joined by a third officer, who also does not appear to tend to the victim.
As soon as paramedics arrived, they pronounced Scott dead at the scene.
Within hours of the footage, acquired by the Charleston Post and Courier, emerging authorities filed the murder charges and arrested Slager.
Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said the FBI would also investigate the shooting.
Keith Summey, the mayor of North Charleston, termed the killing a 'bad decision' at a press conference announcing the charges.
He said: 'When you're wrong, you're wrong. When you make a bad decision, don't care if you're behind the shield or a citizen on the street, you have to live with that decision.'
On Monday, an attorney for the officer had issued a statement putting across Slager's version of events.
He said the officer 'felt threatened and reached for his department-issued firearm and fired his weapon'.
The statement, reported by the The Post and Courier, added: 'Officer Slager believes he followed all the proper procedures and policies of the North Charleston Police Department'.
In the wake of the murder charges, the lawyer no longer represents him.
A statement initially issued by Slager said that he turned to his gun after Scott wrested the Taser away from him. Slager claimed he shot Scott because he 'felt threatened' by him.
Under South Carolina law, Slager could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted of murder.
A lawyer for the family today said that the footage shows Slager 'casually' taking Scott's life, and acting as if there would be no repercussions.
Attorney L. Chris Stewart said: 'This was a cop who felt like he could get away with just shooting anybody that many times in the back. He just casually shot a man that many times in the back.'
He added: 'At the moment he turned and ran and was not a threat to anybody else that officer was completely unjustified.'
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Scott may have tried to run from the officer because he owed child support, which can get someone sent to jail in South Carolina until they pay it back, Stewart said.
He had four children, was engaged and had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard.
Stewart said the family would also pursue civil charges against Slager, saying they were angry at the way the police department sought to defend the police officer until the video was unveiled.
He also said that without the video, and the 'hero' who recorded it, there would have been no murder charges.
He told TV crews: 'What happened today doesn't happen all the time - what if there was no video?'
'What if there was no witness - or hero - to come forward?
'The initial reports stated something totally different - the officer said Mr Scott attacked him and tried to use his Taser on him. But somebody was watching.'
Scott's brother, Anthony, spoke after his brother's death. He said Walter had a fiancée, two siblings and four children.
He told WCIV: 'My brother is a kind and sweet person. He talked to everybody, knew all our family members by name, anybody that came in touch with Walter loved him.'
'He loved the [Dallas] Cowboys. We had planned to go to go see them play but I guess that won't happen now.'
At a press conference Tuesday evening, Anthony spoke out again.
He said: 'From the beginning, all we wanted was the truth... we can't get my brother back and my family is in deep mourning, but the process of justice has been served.
He later added: 'I don't wanna see anyone get shot down the way that my brother got shot down.
'I asked that everyone continue to pray for my family, that we get through this - because we need prayer.'
Meanwhile, the person who filmed the video is speaking with investigators and will come forward publicly 'at some point,' Stewart said.
Activists planned to protest in South Carolina today, but civil rights leaders have called for calm, with many praising the courage of the witness who filmed the killing for coming forward.
'This is what happens... when people are willing to step up and do the right thing for the right reasons,' State Representative Justin Bamber told reporters late on Tuesday.
The shooting took place in North Charleston, which is home to about 100,000 people, nearly half of whom are black, 2010 U.S. Census data shows.
By contrast, only about 18 per cent of its police department's roughly 340 officers are black, the local Post and Courier newspaper reported last year.
According to the Post and Courier, Scott had a warrant out for his arrest from family court at the time of his death.
He has been arrested around ten times, mostly for contempt of court charges for failing to pay child support, included one accusation of a violation stemming from an assault and battery charge in 1987, the paper reported.
Slager, also formerly a member of the Coast Guard, had not previously been disciplined by the department, the Post and Courier said.
He has two stepchildren and a pregnant wife.
The paper reported that in 2013 a man accused him of shooting him with a stun gun without cause, but that Slager was cleared of wrongdoing by an internal police investigation.
The shooting occurred at a time of heightened scrutiny over police officer shootings, particularly those that involve white officers and unarmed black suspects.
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