Forget Liar Crook Traitor Hillary, Negro Alton Sterling Shooting in Baton Rouge Prompts Justice Dept. Investigation.

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

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BATON ROUGE, La. — The Justice Department opened a civil rights
investigation on Wednesday into the fatal shooting of a black man by the
Baton Rouge, La., police after a searing video of the encounter, aired
repeatedly on television and social media, reignited contentious issues
surrounding police killings of African-Americans.

Officials from Gov. John Bel Edwards to the local police and elected
officials vowed a complete and transparent investigation and appealed to
the city — after a numbing series of high-profile, racially charged
incidents elsewhere — to remain calm.

“I have full confidence that this matter will be investigated thoroughly,
impartially and professionally,” Mr. Edwards said in announcing the
federal takeover of the case. “I have very serious concerns. The video is
disturbing, to say the least.”

Urging patience while the investigation takes place, the governor said: “I
know that that may be tough for some, but it’s essential that we do that.
I know that there are protests going on, but it’s urgent that they remain
peaceful.”

Two white officers were arresting Alton B. Sterling, 37, early Tuesday
after responding to a call about an armed man. The officers had Mr.
Sterling pinned to the ground when at least one of them shot him.

The video of the shooting propelled the case to national attention, like a
string of recorded police shootings before it. The shooting has prompted
protests here in the Louisiana capital, including a vigil with prayers and
gospel music that drew hundreds of people Wednesday night to the
storefront where it happened.

C. Denise Marcelle, a state representative who recently announced that she
would run for mayor, made impassioned pleas that the crowd remain calm.

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“This is not Ferguson,” Ms. Marcelle said. “This is Baton Rouge,
Louisiana.”

Sandra Sterling, an aunt who said she had raised Mr. Sterling, also called
for peace. “I’m mad,” she said, but added, “I’m not angry enough to hurt
nobody.”

LaMont O. Cole, a city councilman, had some of the harshest words for the
two police officers. “Those two officers who perpetrated this brutal
attack, and then murdered this young man, are cowards,” he said.

The decision to have the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the
F.B.I. and the United States attorney’s office in Baton Rouge conduct the
investigation was welcomed by a lawyer for Mr. Sterling’s family.

“We’re confident that it won’t be swept under the rug,” said the lawyer,
Edmond Jordan, who is also a state representative. “I think people are
confident that justice will be pursued.”

Officials identified the officers as Blane Salamoni, who has been with the
force for four years, and Howie Lake II, with three years’ experience.
Both were placed on administrative leave.

A call to a phone number for Mr. Salamoni was answered by a man who said
he was not the officer, but who would not identify himself. “When all the
facts come out, they did what they had to do,” the man said, and then hung
up.

Mr. Salamoni is the son of Noel Salamoni, a captain in the department who
is in charge of special operations.

Local and state officials endorsed the federal takeover of the case. “We
feel it is in the best interest of the Baton Rouge Police Department, the
city of Baton Rouge and this community for this to happen,” the police
chief, Carl Dabadie Jr., said.

In other cities with high-profile deaths of people in police custody, when
local law enforcement agencies have kept control of the investigations and
prosecution, they have often drawn intense criticism for their handling of
the cases.

There are multiple videos that may show the conflict with Mr. Sterling, in
addition to the one recorded by a bystander that has been made public,
said Lt. Jonny Dunnam, a police spokesman, at a news conference. Mr.
Jordan, the family lawyer, called on the police to release the videos, but
Lieutenant Dunnam said that for now, the department was providing them
only to the federal authorities.

“We have in-car camera video footage, we have body camera video footage
and there is video at the store,” Lieutenant Dunnam said. Of the
recordings from the body cameras the officers wore, he said: “That footage
may not be as good as we hoped for. During the altercation those body
cameras came dislodged.”

At an earlier news conference on Wednesday, family members, elected
officials and civic leaders demanded to know why Mr. Sterling had been
killed. Some of them, including the local N.A.A.C.P. president, Mike
McClanahan, called on Chief Dabadie to resign.

Cameron Sterling, Mr. Sterling’s 15-year-old son, wept uncontrollably as
his mother, Quinyetta McMillon, delivered a statement.

The individuals involved in his murder took away a man with children who
depended upon their daddy on a daily basis,” Ms. McMillon said, adding,
“As a mother I have now been forced to raise a son who is going to
remember what happened to his father.”

On Tuesday, a person called the police to report that a black man in a red
shirt selling music CDs outside the Triple S Food Mart had threatened him
with a gun, the Police Department said. Two officers confronted Mr.
Sterling about 12:35 a.m.

Mr. Sterling had a long criminal history, including convictions for
battery and illegal possession of a gun, but it is not clear whether the
officers knew any of that as they tried to arrest him.

The graphic cellphone video shot by a bystander, which was released later
in the day, shows an officer pushing Mr. Sterling onto the hood of the car
and then tackling him to the ground. He is held to the pavement by two
officers, and one appears to hold a gun above Mr. Sterling’s chest.

At one point someone on the video can be heard saying, “He’s got a gun!
Gun!” and one officer can be seen pulling his weapon. After some shouting,
what sound like gunshots can be heard and the camera shifts away, and then
there are more apparent gunshots.

A second video of the shooting, filmed by the owner of the store and first
posted by the local newspaper, The Advocate, on Wednesday afternoon,
showed the shooting from a different angle. It also shows one of the
officers taking something out of Mr. Sterling’s pocket after he was shot
and was lying on the ground.

Witnesses have said they saw a handgun on the ground next to him. Mr.
Jordan, the lawyer, said Mr. Sterling’s relatives were not aware of him
owning a gun.

Arthur Reed, the founder of Stop the Killing, the group that released the
cellphone video, said he saw a gun only after Mr. Sterling had been
fatally shot. The group, a mentoring program for youths, had heard reports
on a police scanner about an arrest at the store, and showed up to gather
video for potential use in a documentary about urban violence.

Mr. Reed said the group decided to release its video after he heard that
the police had accused Mr. Sterling of reaching for a gun.

“He never reached in the video,” Mr. Reed said. “He never did anything.”

William Clark, the coroner of East Baton Rouge Parish, said that Mr.
Sterling had died at the scene from gunshot wounds to the chest and back.
Lieutenant Dunnam declined to say whether both officers fired their guns,
or if either of them used an electric stun device on Mr. Sterling.

Mr. Sterling’s name began trending on Twitter Tuesday night. In a
statement on the killing, Hillary Clinton said, ”Something is profoundly
wrong when so many Americans have reason to believe that our country
doesn’t consider them as precious as others because of the color of their
skin.”

By Wednesday evening, the parking lot of the Triple S was jammed with
protesters and TV cameras. The protesters, young and old and nearly all
African-American, waved signs declaring that black lives matter.

Anthony Anderson, 62, a tour bus driver, and his cousin, David Jones, 60,
who is self-employed, said they had had enough.

“I just think it looked like there could have been another way to handle
that situation,” Mr. Anderson said of the video. He said that it seemed to
him that the police here had long been harassing black people.

The videos made just as little sense to Leroy Tackno, 60, the manager of
the Living Waters Outreach Ministry transitional housing center where Mr.
Sterling kept a small bedroom for $90 a week. He said that Mr. Sterling
had never been any trouble.

“I’m just trying to figure out what did he do,” Mr. Tackno said. “All he
did was sell CDs.”


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