BATON ROUGE, La. _ The fatal police shooting of an African-American man hawking CDs in front of a convenience store in this sweltering Southern city has once again reignited the nation's long-running debate over race, police and the use of force.
The shooting by two white police officers _ as 37-year-old Alton Sterling was apparently pinned to the ground _ quickly sent angry protesters into the streets of the Louisiana capital and prompted the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday to take the lead in the investigation to determine what happened.
"Like you, there is a lot that we do not understand, and at this point, like you, I am demanding answers," Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. said at a news conference a day after Tuesday's shooting, promising a "transparent and independent investigation" and calling for protesters to remain peaceful.
Sterling's violent death played out on a cellphone video shot by a bystander and quickly reverberated across the country, evoking images of earlier deaths at the hands of police killings that sparked protests in Ferguson, Mo., Staten Island, N.Y., and Cleveland _ cities that have become geographic waypoints in an evolving national drama over the policing of African-American communities.
Hundreds of angry but nonviolent demonstrators converged on the scene of the shooting, Triple S Food Mart, on Tuesday night, shouting, "Black lives matter" and "Hands up, don't shoot." Protests continued at City Hall on Wednesday morning, with mourners holding signs that read "Don't kill us."
Activists compared the shooting to the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who was suspected of illegally selling cigarettes and died in the summer of 2014 after a police officer put him in a chokehold.
Sterling's son broke down crying and was led away as his mother, Quinyetta McMillon, described Sterling as a man "who simply tried to earn a living to take care of his children." A father of five, Sterling worked odd jobs as a cook and sold wares in front of the mini-mart, family members said.
"The individuals involved in his murder took away a man with children who depended upon their daddy on a daily basis," McMillon said.
Two officers were reportedly responding to an anonymous 911 tip that Sterling had made a threat with a gun in front of the convenience store where the incident occurred; the cellphone video taken by the bystander suggested that officers found a weapon in Sterling's pocket, though there was no sign that he had touched it.
The incident began on a hot, muggy morning in a poor neighborhood of Baton Rouge on Tuesday as Sterling was selling his stock of CDs in front of the Triple S Food Mart, something he had done on and off for seven years, especially since moving into a nearby halfway house.
In the video shot by a local group that monitors police, the two white officers who responded to the scene shout at Sterling to get on the ground and quickly tackle him. After he is pinned down, someone is heard yelling: "He's got a gun! Gun!" and, in a matter of seconds, gunshots are heard.
In a second video taken from another angle, Sterling's chest can be seen bleeding before an officer removes an unidentifiable object from his pocket.
While the national debate over police shootings has prompted cities across the country to require officers to wear body cameras _ including those in Baton Rouge _ in this case the cameras being worn by both officers became dislodged in the scuffle, though they apparently continued to operate, police said.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Dabadie rebuffed activists' calls for his resignation, though he called Sterling's death a "horrible tragedy." He said the department had turned over the investigation to the U.S. attorney's office, and also had given federal officials custody of body and dashboard camera videos.
Dabadie identified the officers as Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake. Salamoni has been on the force for four years, Lake for three years. The officers have been placed on leave, and an investigation is "ongoing," the chief said.
"Like you, there is a lot that we do not understand, and at this point, like you, I am demanding answers," Dabadie said.
The shooting, in a city of 229,000 that is about 54 percent black, quickly rocketed through social media and caught the attention of national politicians and civil rights activists, including members of the Black Lives Matter movement. The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson tweeted that the incident was a "legal lynching."
A key question in the investigation is whether Sterling was making threats with his gun, either before or during the altercation with police. Dispatch audio released Wednesday reported the threat Sterling had purportedly made, but the story is disputed.
Abdullah Muflahi, the owner of the convenience store, said Sterling did not have a gun in his hand when the police approached him, but said he saw officers take one of out of Sterling's pocket after the shooting. Muflahi released his own video of the altercation, which doesn't appear to show Sterling holding a gun.
Muflahi said he had known Sterling since opening the store seven years ago. He called him "Big Boy," allowed him to sell his CDs in the parking lot and joked with him when they passed. Sterling recently had begun carrying a handgun, he said.
Louisiana is an open-carry state, where a person who is at least 17 can legally have a gun on his or her body without a permit. But family members said Sterling would have been prohibited from carrying a gun because he was on probation.
"He told me that he had it for protection," Muflahi said. "Friends of his that also sold CDs had been bothered." But Muflahi said when he emerged from the store and raised his cellphone to film police approaching, he did not see the officers ask Sterling about the gun before tackling him. Muflahi heard Sterling ask, "What did I do wrong?" He said police did not respond.
"They were throwing him on top of the car, tasered him," Muflahi said. "Then they tackled him on another vehicle. They got on top of him, one of the officers screamed 'Gun!' Then there were six shots."
That's when Muflahi said he saw one of the officers reach into Sterling's pocket to extract a dark-colored handgun.
Sterling died from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and back, according to East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William Clark. His death was ruled a homicide.
Although the federal government is leading the investigation, the decision of whether to file state murder charges will likely rest with a local prosecutor _ and possibly with a local grand jury.
East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III said in a statement that he would wait until all investigations were complete before making a decision on whether to proceed with a criminal case, adding that it would likely take at least four weeks for investigators to complete their work.
