BR Police Officers On Leave After Fatal Shooting Of Beloved Black Man During Altercation
Two white Baton Rouge police officers are on paid administrative leave pending an investigation after they fatally shot and killed a black man during a confrontation early Tuesday morning.
The incident, which was captured on video and released on Facebook and other social media, began when the officers had responded to reports of a disturbance. According to the caller, a black man was selling CDs and had threatened him with a gun.
When officers arrived on the scene, they approached 37-year-old Alton Sterling in a store’s parking lot, and police said an altercation between the officers and Sterling took place. During that time, and in one of the videos, an officer drew his gun and shot Sterling.
Sterling died on the scene.
A review of the video from the store surveillance, someone is heard saying, “gun” when one officer is on top of Sterling and the other officer is sitting next to the man. After that, there are several shots fired.
After the camera moves another direction, someone is heard saying “Get on the ground.” Shortly after that, three more gunshots go off. The camera is put back on Sterling, who is seen with a gunshot wound to his chest and a gun pointed right at him from one of the officers.
Someone is heard saying, “Shots fired” and an object is removed from Sterling’s front pants pocket.
Abdullah Muflahi is the store owner and the one who recorded the video. He said he was standing several feet from the incident when his friend was shot. Muflahi said he’d come outside and noticed that officers had slammed Sterling on a car parked in one of the spaces. He said officers backed away so that one could taser while the other one tackled Sterling.
Muflahi said he’s known the man for six years, selling his CDs outside the store for two or more years. He said he considered him a friend, often asking him to watch the store if he had to go out. He described Sterling as a man who was genuinely loved by people knew him, and he’d often go out of his way to purchase snacks for the neighborhood kids.
When the video surfaced online, crowds of people gathered in the city to protest the shooting.
According to Hillar Moore III, district attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish, said case detectives had interviewed the two officers who claimed the shooting was justified because they feared for their lives.
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is leading the investigation into the shooting.
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