Alton Sterling Shooting by Baton Rouge Police Sparks Outrage, Protests
Police fatally shot a black father of five outside a convenience store in Louisiana in a chilling incident apparently captured on cellphone video.
Graphic footage circulating online which was filmed by a witness appears to show Alton Sterling, 37, being shot as he is pinned to the ground. It has sparked outrage and protests.
The Baton Rouge Police Department said uniformed officers responded to a call early Tuesday about a black male in a red shirt who was selling CDs and had reportedly threatened the caller with a gun.
Officers "made contact" with Sterling in the parking lot of the Triple S Food Mart and an altercation ensued, police said in a statement.
"Sterling was shot during the altercation and died at the scene," the statement said.
Two officers have been placed on administration leave "per standard procedure," it added, saying the investigation was ongoing.
Sterling died from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back, according to East Baton Rouge Coroner Dr. William Clark. He would not immediately confirm reports that Sterling was shot seven times.
The president of the NAACP, Cornell Brooks, called video of the incident hard to watch - but "far harder" to ignore.
"Get on the ground, get on the ground" is heard before two officers confront a man in a red T-shirt. One officer tackles the man, throwing him on the hood of the car and onto the ground. The second officer climbs on and helps hold him down.
One officer appears to shout a warning: "He's got a gun! Gun!"
While the man is on the ground one officer pulls out his gun. He holds it the back of the man's head or neck, shouting is heard, and then two pops - as the camera quickly cuts away. At least two more pops are heard.
Background voices are heard saying "oh my God" and "They shot him?" and "They killed this boy."
"Oh my God," a woman's voice shrieks.
Sterling's sister, Mignon Chambers, said something "needs to be done" in wake of the shooting.
"There's no reason for you to handle him the way that you did," she said. "It wasn't right."
State Rep. Ted James called the shooting a "murder," saying in a statement it "has made me question what it really means to be land of the free and home of the brave."
He demanded an independent investigation and scrutiny of the police department's body-camera policy. Local media reported that the officers' body cameras had fallen off.
Congressman Cedric Richmond cited "a number of unanswered questions" around the "tragedy" - including the level of force and response of officers after.
"The video footage released today of the shooting of Alton Sterling ... was deeply troubling and has understandably evoked strong emotion and anger in our community," Richmond said in a statement. "I share in this anger and join the community in the pursuit of justice.
He called on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an investigation - and for protests to be conducted "with dignity."
Protesters gathered outside the convenience store overnight, chanting "black lives matter" and holding signs saying "Honk for justice" as car horns blared.
#AltonSterling was trending on Twitter amid the mounting outrage.
Martin Luther King's youngest daughter, Bernie King, was among those adding her voice.
"May his name and his brutal last breath shake up and transform systems," she wrote on Twitter.
May his name and his brutal last breath shake up and transform systems: #AltonSterling.
- Be A King (@BerniceKing) July 6, 2016
Activists and celebrities also posted about their outrage.
The shooting of #AltonSterling in #BatonRouge is a legal lynching. Justice must prevail. #Outraged
- Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) July 6, 2016
How many more times must this happen for us to matter? How many more must we lose?
BLACK. LIVES. MATTER. #AltonSterling
- Zendaya (@Zendaya) July 6, 2016
Source
Added a second article, because it's got some important info re: him carrying a gun and what footage is available of the incident:
Alton Sterling: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
1. An Officer Is Heard Saying ‘He’s Got a Gun!’ & ‘You F*cking Move, I Swear to God!’ Before Shots Are Fired
The brief video, which you can watch above (op note: at the source), shows the end of the incident. In the video, an officer can be heard yelling “get on the ground,” out of the view of the cell phone camera. As the camera pans up, an officer is seen charging at Alton Sterling, grabbing him and tackling him into the hood of a car and then down to the pavement.
Another officer can then be seen kneeling on Sterling. After a few seconds one of the officers yells, “He’s got a gun!” The officer seen in the video kneeling on Sterling draws his weapon and one of them says, “if you f*cking move, I swear to God!”
One of the officers then says, “Mike, he’s going for the Taser!’
Two shots can then be heard and the bystander drops the cell phone. Three more shots are then fired after a brief pause.
The store’s owner, Abdullah Muflahi, told The Advocate that Sterling was armed, but said he was not holding his gun or touching his pockets during the incident, the Advocate reports. The gun was later found in his pocket, Muflahi told the newspaper. Police have not confirmed his version of events.
You can watch video of Muflahi talking about what he saw during the shooting, recorded by a reporter for The Advocate, below (at the source)
Muflahi told The Advocate that Sterling began carrying a gun after he was mugged. He said a Taser was used by the officers on Sterling, but it did not bring him to the ground. The sound of the stun gun can be heard at the start of the video.
2. Sterling, Who Was Pronounced Dead at the Scene, Was Shot Multiple Times in the Back & Chest
Sterling was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, the Baton Rouge Police Department said in a press release.
An autopsy was conducted later Tuesday. He died of multiple gunshot wounds to the back and chest, the East Baton Rouge Coroner’s Office told WBRZ-TV.
Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden told the news station there will be a thorough investigation.
“This is not going to be a cover up,” Holden said.
Congressman Cedric Richmond, a Democrat who represents the 2nd District of Louisiana, including Baton Rouge, has called for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in a statement released early Wednesday morning:
The video footage released today of the shooting of Alton Sterling by officers of the Baton Rouge Police Department was deeply troubling and has understandably evoked strong emotion and anger in our community,” said Rep. Richmond. “I share in this anger and join the community in the pursuit of justice. My prayers and thoughts are with Mr. Sterling’s family as they deal with this tragedy.”
There are a number of unanswered questions surrounding Mr. Sterling’s death. Including questions about the initial calls for police presence, the level of force used by officers, the verbal and physical altercation, and the response of the officers after he was shot. I call on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a full and transparent investigation into this incident. The cause of justice requires state and local law enforcement to join in this request as soon as possible.
“I ask the leaders and citizens of Baton Rouge to join me in demonstrating our anger with dignity and demanding proper focus on our cause with perseverance,” Richmond said. “His family and the citizens of Baton Rouge-especially the citizens of North Baton Rouge-deserve answers and that is what we will seek in a fair, thorough, and transparent way.”
3. Members of the Community Say Sterling ‘Wasn’t a Bad Person’ & His Cousin Says He Would’ve Been ‘Too Scared’ to Fight the Police
Mignon Chambers, Sterling’s sister, told WAFB-TV that he was a father of five who has been selling CDs outside the store for years.
“I really wanna know more about what happened, about the whole situation, because my brother didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve it at all,” Chambers told the news station.
Sharida Sterling, his cousin, told The Advocate, “He would have never fought the police, he wouldn’t have pulled a gun, he would have been too scared.”
He was known as “CD Man” and was living in a shelter in Baton Rouge, Living Waters Outreach Ministries in recent months, The Advocate reports.
“Whatever he cooked, he cooked enough for everybody,” fellow resident Calvin Wilson told the newspaper. “I never saw him coming in here with a weapon, and I never saw him drunk.”
Wilson described the facility as a place for people looking to get back on their feet and said Sterling had a job as a cook.
“He wasn’t a bad person,” another resident, David Solomon, told the newspaper.
Sterling was a registered sex offender, state records show. He was convicted in 2000 of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and was released from prison in 2004. Details of that case were not immediately available.
Sterling also had convictions for aggravated battery, criminal damage to property, unauthorized entry and domestic abuse battery, The Advocate reports. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2009 for possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute and carrying an illegal weapon with a controlled dangerous substance.
Despite his record, Darian Gardner, his friend, told The Advocate that Sterling, “didn’t cause any harm to the community. He was nice. He wasn’t a bad guy. He was respectable.”
4. The Officers’ Body Cameras ‘Fell Off’ During the Incident
The two officers involved in the shooting have not yet been identified. No other biographical information about them, including their ages and how long they’ve been with the department has been released.
A police spokesman told The Advocate names of the officers will be made public “first thing in the morning” Wednesday.
Police said in a statement on Facebook that the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
In addition to the witness video, police said they have surveillance video from the convenience store and dash camera video from police vehicles.
The officers were wearing body cameras, but they fell off during the incident, State Representative Denise Marcelle told WAFB-TV. She said Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. told her about the cameras falling off, and said they do not show the shooting as a result.
Sterling’s family has called for all other video showing the shooting to be released, while police have asked any witnesses who recorded video to turn it over to them to aid in the investigation.
5. The Shooting Has Led to Protests in Baton Rouge
A large crowd of protesters, including Sterling’s family members and friends, gathered at the scene of the shooting throughout the day Tuesday, with the group growing at night, according to reporters at the scene.
The protesters briefly shut down traffic (see tweets at the source for video)
Sterling’s name was trending worldwide on Twitter and on Facebook Tuesday night as the video was shared across social media.
Source
As someone pointed out before, the gun nuts only want white people to be armed. When a black person arms themselves, they're considered a threat even if they leave it in their pocket. -_-
The cellphone footage is at the source from a news clip, I didn't want to embed it here. You can hear the gunshots but you don't actually see the shooting, just the events leading right up to it.