Across the country, protesters had gathered peacefully Thursday evening to demonstrate against the shootings.
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Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson, a public school administrator who is considered among the movement’s loudest voices, was among 125 people arrested Saturday night in Baton Rouge, where Alton Sterling was shot and killed last week.
A suburban St. Paul police officer who killed a black driver pulled the man over in part because he believed he resembled a suspect in a robbery, his attorney said. In a video, officers are seen wrestling Sterling to the ground, one shouting that he has a gun and another officer pulling out his weapon and shooting Sterling while he is pinned on the ground.
Both officers involved in Sterling’s shooting – four-year member of the department Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, who was on the force for three years – have been placed on administrative leave and had prior “use of force” complaints. “I told him to get his hand out”. We know from past experience that through unity we can find strength and persevere in the wake of tragedy. “I don’t think it would’ve”.
Then on Wednesday, Philando Castile, another black man, was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul, Minn. Castile died at the hospital.
Castile was reaching for his driver’s license and registration when the officer opened fire, says his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds.
Reynolds added that suggestions that Castile’s killing was not racially motivated and that the officer had probable cause are “appalling”.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief Todd Axtell are condemning the violence.
Late Sunday and into Monday morning, nearly fifty protesters were bundled into the back of police vans in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, while a handful in Atlanta, Georgia were also arrested.
Kanye West’s wife also commented on the recent attacks against police in Dallas, where five officers were shot dead. Yanez, who fired the shots, is Hispanic.
Minneapolis attorney Thomas Kelly says that Yanez is “obviously saddened by the death of Mr. Castile, sad for the loved ones, and distressed that deadly force became necessary”, but added that the incident originated because Castile had a gun in the auto.
The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the shooting.
Goins, an attorney who assisted the Castile family after the shooting but is not representing anyone in the case, said if Yanez and Kauser believed they could be stopping the robbery suspect, they should have approached the vehicle differently: using lights, sirens and a public address system while they took cover and ordered the occupants to the ground at gunpoint. He also said that he would decide whether to turn the case over to a grand jury once the state presents its findings to his office. Two civilians were also injured. He said he spoke with President Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, and said he would urge the USA attorney general and the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division to open whatever investigations they deemed appropriate.
There was only 1 day in 2016 when police didn’t kill anyone..
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While she commended the efforts put forth by police officers to protect their communities, Warren used the post to call for an end to this “ugly reality”.
