Demonstrators blocked the intersection near the convenience store before 10 p.m. CT Tuesday night. It was not clear if that footage has been reviewed or what it showed. Officers were responding to an anonymous caller who said Sterling threatened him with a gun.
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The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Baton Rouge shooting.
Though paramedics were eventually called to the scene of the shooting, by the time they arrived, Sterling was already dead. Durdin said black protesters were “making an agenda” out of police violence and Sterling’s death.
“The President is aware of this and regardless of what this investigation finds, there is a family in Baton Rouge and there is a community that’s grieving right now”.
McClanahan called on the Baton Rouge police to arrest the two officers.
“Something is profoundly wrong when so many Americans have reason to believe that our country doesn’t consider them as precious as others because of the color of their skin”, Clinton said.
Edwards called on the Baton Rouge community and faith-based leaders “to work with all of us that we remain calm and peaceful as the details unfold”.
Officers approached Sterling in the parking lot of the convenience store, and “an altercation between Sterling and the officers ensued”, police said.
In a cellphone video posted online by a community activist, Salamoni and Lake are shown pinning Sterling to the ground.
One man seems to yell, “Gun”. And was he the man who had brandished one in the alleged incident to which the officers were responding in the first place? “Gun!” And then the sickening sound of shots, along with gasps and cries of witnesses as the camera falls away.
Again, a black man has been shot to death by a white police officer or officers. They have been placed on administrative leave. One of the officers then reaches into Sterling’s right pocket and out pulls an unidentifiable object as the man lay bleeding out on the ground.
Esman said Sterling was the 122 black person shot and killed by law enforcement in the US this year. Her son, Cameron, 15, broke down in tears and was led away as his mother spoke. She decried the killing of Sterling, a man who was, “simply trying to earn a living and take care of his children”.
“I for one will not rest and will not allow him to be swept into the dirt”, she said. “He was a very nice guy”, he said.
“I know that that may be tough for some, but it’s essential that we do that”, he said.
In announcing the Justice Department investigation, the governor was accompanied by black Democrats from Baton Rouge who praised him and others for quickly asking the federal government to get involved.
Baton Rouge, a city of about 229,000, is 54 percent black, according to census data, and more than 25 percent of its people live in poverty.
New cell phone video emerged Wednesday afternoon of the deadly police shooting of Alton Sterling.
“During the altercation, the body cameras did become dislodged, but they did stay on and active and recording at this time”, Dunham said. He said the agency’s civil rights division would be in charge of the probe.
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“I don’t plan on resigning”, he said, adding that his department has turned the investigation of the incident over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI.
