Thousands gathered Friday to mourn the death of Alton Sterling, whose shooting death at the hands of white police officers sparked nationwide protests, NBC News reported.
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In a funeral that was part home-going celebration and part political declaration, Sterling’s family and a slew of speakers said sweet, sorrowful goodbyes while calling for justice.
Mr Sterling’s death was captured on mobile phone video and circulated widely on the internet.
A 20-year-old man accused of stealing guns from a pawn shop, in what authorities called a credible threat to harm police officers, is being held without bond in a Baton Rouge jail.
Among the mourners was Darrell Jupiter, a landscaper and close friend of Sterling who came to the visitation inside the basketball arena. The final suspect, a 12-year-old, was arrested on Friday.
The campus resides just a few miles from where Sterling lost his life, after being shot at point-range by said law enforcement officials from the Baton Rouge Police Department, after being pinned to the ground outside the Triple S convenience store.
A public viewing is set to begin at 8 a.m. CDT at Southern University in Baton Rouge followed by a funeral service.
BATON ROUGE (WGNO) – Less than half of the people arrested during protests in Baton Rouge last weekend will be prosecuted, WBRZ reports.
Deputy Assistant to the President, Roy Austin and Stephanie Young, advisor with the White House Office of Public Engagement attended the service to represent the Obama Administration.
Deray McKensson of Baltimore, a prominent Blake Lives Matter activist, and Ieshia Evans of Dunmore, Penn., the woman pictured in a now well-known photo of a protest, are among the more than 100 protesters that East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore says he will not prosecute.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana had filed a lawsuit earlier this week over police treatment of protesters.
Carl Slaughter, a Baton Rouge resident who has run a community center for 35 years, remembered Sterling as a teenager who spent many hours there after the death of his parents.
“We’re not anti-police, we’re anti-wrong”, Sharpton said. Police have said they found a gun in Sterling’s pocket. “They just disobeyed commands, so compared to other places, we were very fortunate in that regard”, Moore said. The funeral for Sgt. Michael Krol was held about the same time as Sterling’s on Friday in Plano, Texas.
Meanwhile, a man involved in what police have described as a credible threat to harm police officers made his initial appearance in federal court Friday.
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One of the suspects said they did so to harm officers; Bridgewater told investigators his motivation was to sell stolen items for cash, an agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in an affidavit filed Thursday in federal court.
