Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old African American man, was selling bootleg compact discs outside the Triple S convenience store in Baton Rouge in the early hours of July 5, 2016, when white police officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II arrived to investigate a report of a man with a gun. They confronted Sterling and pinned him to the ground. During a struggle, Salamoni fatally shot him.
The whole incident took less than 90 seconds. Within 24 hours, mobile phone video of the shooting made its way around the internet, sparking days of street protests (O’Donoghue 1).
Surveillance video from the Triple S Convenience store shows Sterling selling DVDs outside and packing up his goods as Officer Howie Lake II arrives and confronts him.
When Salamoni arrives to help Lake, he pulls his gun seconds later, according to his body camera video. Ten seconds into the video, as Sterling questions why the officers are trying to detain him, Salamoni shouts, “Don’t f—– move or I’ll shoot your f—- a–. Put your f—— hands on the car.”
Video from Lake’s body camera shows the officer approaching Sterling, trying to get him to put his hands on the hood of a car, and eventually struggling with him on the ground. During the altercation, another person, presumably Salamoni, screams, “He’s got a gun!” and soon thereafter gunshots are heard.
A gun is not visible in the video, but Lake tells another officer he put it in his car. The officers had been responding to a call from a homeless man who said Sterling showed him a weapon after he approached Sterling for money. Police have said a.38-caliber handgun was found at the scene.
Federal investigators found insufficient evidence to file civil rights charges against the officers in May 2017, and state investigators similarly did not file charges 10 months later (Levenson 4-5).
Investigators said Salamoni drew his handgun and pointed it at Sterling’s head within 20 seconds of arriving on the scene. According to federal officials, as related by Sterling’s family and attorney, the officer said to Sterling something to the effect of “I’m going to kill you, bitch”.
According to the official account of the incident, the officers tried to tackle Sterling and deploy a stun gun. While in a scuffle on the ground, officers believed Sterling was reaching for a gun in his pocket. Salamoni drew his weapon and fired three shots to Sterling’s chest, then three more as he rolled over.
Store owner Abdullah Muhlafi, who considered Sterling a friend and allowed him to sell CDs out front, recorded the incident. Muhlafi told reporters that though Sterling was carrying a handgun in his pocket or waistband, he never had it in his hands.
The officers said they did not have control of Sterling’s right arm as they attempted to arrest him, and that they believed his hand was moving towards the weapon.
“Throughout the encounter the officers attempted several non-lethal techniques to gain control of Mr Sterling’s hands,” [state attorney general Jeff] Landry said on Tuesday. “The officers’ concern that he was armed and dangerous was in fact subsequently verified and correct” (Lartey 2).
Sterling ... was a neighborhood fixture, known for selling CDs outside of the store. Those who knew him described him as funny, a father of 5 children who was trying hard to overcome his past criminal record. He had been convicted of carrying an illegal weapon in 2011 and had been out of prison for about 6 months (Samuels 2).
Salamoni defended his use of profanities, according to the report, stating he believed that if he started cursing at Sterling he "would realize that the police are here and we are not playing."
After Sterling is apparently dead, Salamoni can be heard panting, and his hands are seen holding his handgun. He begins going through Sterling's pockets and calls him a "stupid motherf-----" twice (McCausland 2).
Louisiana has declined to press charges against the pair of white police officers involved in the 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling. The state's attorney general, Jeff Landry, announced the decision at a news conference Tuesday, saying that a months-long review of the incident failed to uncover evidence that either police officer could be held criminally responsible for Sterling's death.
"The Louisiana Department of Justice cannot proceed with a prosecution of either Officer Howie Lake or Officer Blane Salamoni," Landry told reporters after meeting with members of Sterling's family in private.
The announcement comes just over a year and a half after Sterling's killing …
…
After meeting with Landry, members of Sterling's family expressed deep sadness and outrage, but little surprise at the decision.
"They're not going to bring charges on anybody. Why would they do that? This is white America," Sterling's aunt Veda Washington-Abusaleh said, as she left the meeting according to CNN.
"We're all out of tears. We have nothing else in us to cry about, because guess what: We all knew what it was, just like y'all knew what it was going to be," Quinyetta McMillon, the mother of one of Sterling's five children, told reporters.
"The way they killed him was in cold blood," she added. "Yes, the system has failed us. Yes, we are disappointed. But as a family, we're going to stay strong. We're going to stay prayed up. The devil thought he won, but he didn't."
… Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said Tuesday that his department still intends to complete disciplinary hearings for the officers, including releasing findings such as dashcam video (Dwyer 1-3).
The [department] report ... included the results of a toxicology test, which said Mr. Sterling’s blood had contained alcohol, cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and THC. The amount of methamphetamine, the report said, was associated with “abusers who exhibited violent and irrational behavior.”
Michael Adams, a lawyer for the Sterling family, said the videos showed that Mr. Sterling was lucid, and not “deranged” or “out of control.”
“He stayed relatively calm throughout this process,” he said. “And that’s a different story or depiction when you read the attorney general’s findings” (Fausset 4).
Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul apologized on behalf of the department for hiring the officer who killed Alton Sterling ...
“We are sorry Baton Rouge. I want to apologize to the family of Alton Sterling and also to his kids,” Chief Paul said, according to CNN affiliate WAFB.
“We’re sorry because he should have never been hired. And while we obviously cannot change the past, it is clear that we must change the future, and I sincerely apologize for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in building barriers in communities of color in Baton Rouge,” said Paul, who joined the department in January 2018.
In March 2018, state officials decided not to file criminal charges against the two officers involved in Sterling’s fatal shooting, saying their actions were justified. But days later, police fired Officer Blane Salamoni for violating use of force policies when he shot Sterling.
Salamoni had appealed his firing, but Paul announced Thursday that they reached a resolution that would keep Salamoni from ever working with the department.
Mayor Sharon Weston Broome said Salamoni will not receive monetary compensation in the resolution.
…
Leo Hamilton, an attorney for the Baton Rouge Police Department, said Thursday that Salamoni had a history of misbehavior prior to Sterling’s shooting.
…
Hamilton said Salamoni regularly shouted profanities and abused individuals with unnecessary uses of force, as he did in the Sterling incident. Salamoni’s ill temperament caused “blow ups” with other officers, including one with a ranking officer, Hamilton said. Another officer told their superior that if something weren’t done about Salamoni, he could kill somebody, according to Hamilton.
Hamilton also said that Salamoni had previously been arrested for his involvement in a physical altercation or domestic abuse incident prior to joining the police, which would have kept him from being accepted to the force (Levenson 1-3).
Attorneys representing the children of Alton Sterling, …, said Thursday that a decision by local officials against offering $5 million to settle a pending civil case showed they were uninformed about the matter.
Sterling was fatally shot on July 5, 2016, outside a Baton Rouge convenience store during a struggle.
Lawyers for Sterling’s five children subsequently filed a wrongful death suit in 2017 against the city, its police department and former police chief and the two officers involved. The suit alleges the shooting fit a pattern of racist behavior and excessive force by Baton Rouge Police. it also claims poor training and inadequate police procedures led to Sterling’s death.
…
Both the East Baton Rouge Parish attorney and lawyers for Sterling’s family met with a mediator on Oct. 3, 2019, about the case and they agreed on a proposed $5 million figure. On Wednesday, the East Baton Rouge Metro Council heard the matter, which needed seven votes for the settlement to be approved. Six council members voted yes, five voted no and one abstained, meaning the judgment failed.
Barring a settlement, the lawsuit is set to go to trial in March 2021.
Attorney Chris Stewart said at a news conference in Baton Rouge that he was surprised by the decision.
“It was perfectly clear that the city council had no clue what is going on in this case,” Stewart said. “It was clear they were not informed about anything going on in this case and that puts the city at risk. The misinformation that was given lay in the hands of the parish attorney” (Johnson 1).
After a $5 million proposed settlement fell through, officials in Louisiana are now offering $4.5 million to settle the civil lawsuit brought by the family of Alton Sterling ...
The East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council voted 7-4 Wednesday in favor of offering the multimillion-dollar settlement to the family of Alton Sterling, news outlets reported (Officials 1).
[Paste the link below on google if you choose to watch a CBS News produced video of the shooting]
Alton Sterling shooting video: Raw footage of fatal police ...
Works cited:
Dwyer, Colin. “Baton Rouge Officers Will Not Be Charged in Alton Sterling's Killing.” NPR, March 27, 2018. Net. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/27/597301377/baton-rouge-officers-will-not-be-charged-in-alton-sterlings-killing
Fausset, Richard. “Baton Rouge Officer Is Fired in Alton Sterling Case as Police Release New Videos.” The New York Times, March 30, 2018. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/us/baton-rouge-alton-sterling.html
Johnson, Chevel. “Alton Sterling case: Baton Rouge Nixes $5M Settlement Offer.” AP, September 10, 2020. Net. https://apnews.com/article/police-alton-sterling-blane-salamoni-howie-lake-ii-archive-739cfb1f3a022f1a465f1841c472942c
Lartey, Jamiles. “Alton Sterling Shooting: Two Police Officers Will Not Be Charged with Any Crime.” The Guardian, March 27, 2018. Net. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/27/alton-sterling-shooting-two-police-officers-will-not-be-charged-with-any
Levenson, Eric. “Baton Rouge Police Chief Apologizes for Hiring the Officer Who Killed Alton Sterling.” CNN, August 1, 2019. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/01/us/alton-sterling-baton-rouge-police/index.html
McCausland, Phil. “Baton Rouge Police Fire Officer Who Killed Alton Sterling.” NBC News, March 30, 2018. Net. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/baton-rouge-police-fire-officer-who-killed-alton-sterling-n861606
O’Donoghue, Julia. “Alton Sterling Shooting One Year On: What Has – and Hasn't – Happened.” NOLA, July 22, 2019. Net. https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_81bda4f6-67e8-5247-835c-ca77d529793f.html
“Officials Offer $4.5M Settlement over Alton Sterling’s Death.” AP, February 11, 2021. Net. https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-police-alton-sterling-lawsuits-louisiana-a746a96ce79431c2721d45a783ebe4f5
Samuels, Diana. “Alton Sterling Shooting: Images from Baton Rouge the Week After.” NOLA, updated July 19, 2019. Net. https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_5303daba-74a8-5ea5-a083-3cb7b1d49606.html
No comments:
Post a Comment