BATON ROUGE, La. _ The U.S. Department of Justice will investigate the fatal shooting of a black man by Baton Rouge police, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Wednesday morning.
Protests swelled after a cellphone video of Alton Sterling's death circulated online, and activists are calling for the resignation of the city's police chief. The shooting evokes recent controversies over deadly police shootings of black men that have catapulted the country into a ?fraught? conversation on race, police and the use of force.
In the grainy, 48-second video, a police officer can be heard telling Sterling, 37, to get on the ground. Sterling, who is black, stands before two white police officers. One of them tackles him, and both pin him to the ground. One officer appears to hold a gun to Sterling's chest. Someone yells "he's got a gun!" Shots ring out, and the video cuts away from the three men.
Police say they were responding to a 911 call about a black man in a red T-shirt who had been selling CDs outside a Baton Rouge mini-mart. The caller said that the man had threatened him with a gun. ?But at least one witness tells a different story.
The officers have been placed on leave and an investigation is "ongoing," according to a police statement. Sterling died from gunshot wounds to his chest and back, according to East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William Clark. Further details of the shooting are unclear, and police did not respond to a phone call on Wednesday.
Hundreds of angry but peaceful 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 Baton Rouge City Hall on Wednesday morning, with mourners holding signs that said "don't kill us." Some 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 choke hold.
The shooting has caught the attention of national activists, politicians and civil rights leaders, including members of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, who tweeted that the incident was a "legal lynching."
The Baton Rouge police statement said Sterling was reported to be making threats with a gun, but the story is disputed. The convenience store's owner, Abdul Muflahi, told WAFB-TV that Sterling did not have a gun in his hand when the police approached him but that he saw officers take one of out of Sterling's pocket after the shooting. Describing the shooting, Muflahi said the first officer used a Taser on Sterling, the second officer tackled him and that, as Sterling fought them, the first officer shot him "four to six times."
The officers' body cameras fell off before the shooting, police said.
Speaking at a news conference late Wednesday morning, Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. called Sterling's death a "horrible tragedy," saying the department "will turn over the entire case to the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI," including handing over body and dashboard camera videos. Dabadie, who rebuffed activists' calls for his resignation, named the officers involved in Sterling's shooting at Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II. Salamoni has been on the force for four years, Lake for three years.
"Like you, there is a lot that we do not understand and at this point, like you, I am demanding answers," Dabadie said as he called for a "transparent and independent investigation."
Standing alongside the chief, the Rev. Gerard A. Robinson Sr. of McKowen Missionary Baptist Church called for peaceful protest. "We have a right to protest and we should protest for those things that are right and in the best interest for our community, however we do want to suggest that all people who will be protesting, you do it in order," he said.
A Sterling family lawyer, Edmond Jordan, said on CNN that he was unsure if Sterling carried a gun and that relatives he spoke to "were not aware that he had a gun." Jordan, who is also a state representative, said that the shooting was unjustified and that "the city has to give some good answers."
Quinyetta McMillon, 31, said she was the mother of Sterling's oldest child, who had been traumatized by the shooting. Cameron Sterling, 15, she said, "had to watch this as this was put all over the outlets and everything," as the teen cried loudly, wiping his face with his shirt.
Louisiana is an open carry state, where a person who is at least 17 can legally have a gun on their body without a permit. Sterling, who family members say was on probation, would have been disqualified from the open carry rules.
Records show that Sterling had a long criminal record, including a conviction in 2000 for carnal knowledge of a juvenile, and previous guilty pleas to aggravated battery, simple criminal battery damage to property and unauthorized entry, and domestic abuse battery.
On Wednesday, McMillon said that he "should not be judged on his past."
"Alton sells CDs and he was doing just that, not bothering anyone, and had the consent of the store owners as well.
"I will not allow him to be swept in the dirt," she said.
