The Baton Rouge Police Department announced that Blane Salamoni, the officer who fatally shot Alton Sterling, was fired Friday.
Officer Howie Lake II, who was also involved in the black man's shooting death, was suspended for three days after "an exhaustive, yearlong federal criminal civil rights investigation," Chief Murphy Paul said Friday.
The disciplinary decisions were announced as the department released long-awaited footage from officers' body cameras Friday.
Video and audio recordings from the fatal incident reveal a disturbing struggle between Sterling and the two officers.
Salamoni can be heard yelling profanities at Sterling upon his arrival at the scene.
He immediately draws his weapon and threatens to shoot Sterling in the head if he doesn't turn around and place his hands on the hood of a vehicle.
"What I did, sir?" Sterling asks the officers.
"Don't f------ move or I'll shot your f------ a--, b----," Salamoni shouts.
"Put your hands on the car or I'll shoot you in your f------ head, you understand me? Don't you f------ move, you hear me?" Salamoni says.
After he opens fire, Salamoni disparages Sterling, repeatedly calling him a "stupid motherf-----."
Paul defended his decision Friday, saying it "was based on the facts of the case."
"Unreasonable fear within an officer is dangerous. Rather an officer needs to respond with awareness of a situation and the ability to effectively and rationally evaluate a situation and its appropriate response," he said.
Paul said that Salamoni, who was fired, violated the department's "use of force" and "command of temper" policies.
The state's top prosecutor said Tuesday that the two cops, who are both white, would not be charged in the July 2016 killing of Sterling _ who is black _ outside a convenience store.
"This decision was not taken lightly," Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said Tuesday. "We came to this conclusion after countless hours of reviewing the evidence."
Last year, the Justice Department declined to pursue charges against the officers _ a decision that sparked nationwide outrage and protests.
"Given the totality of the circumstances _ that the officers had been fighting with Sterling and had attempted less-than-lethal methods of control; that they knew Sterling had a weapon; that Sterling had reportedly brandished a gun at another person; and that Sterling was much larger and stronger than either officer _ the Department cannot prove either that the shots were unconstitutional or that they were willful," the DOJ concluded.
On July 5, 2016, a resident called police to report that a black man with a weapon selling CDs had threatened someone at the Triple S Food Mart.
Sterling, 37, was shot in a confrontation with police. The officers said they feared for their lives when Sterling tried to pull a loaded gun out of his pocket. Salamoni opened fire _ though cellphone video of the incident shows the pistol never left Sterling's pocket, and was taken out after the shooting by one of the officers.
The cellphone video, which went viral, shows the officers pinning Sterling to the ground as someone yells, "He's got a gun! Gun!"
Salamoni fired all of the shots.
The release of the footage set off a wave of protests in which nearly 200 people were arrested.
Sterling's death, and the decision not to prosecute the officers, has fueled African-Americans' frustration with a legal system that fails to convict officers.
Sterling's aunt, Sandra Sterling spoke from a wheelchair Tuesday to condemn police and the justice system.
"Shame on him," she said of Landry.
She called out Salamoni saying, "You took an oath to protect and serve, not to protect and kill."
Both officers had been on paid leave since the investigation began in 2016.
