Federal investigation announced in police-shooting death of Louisiana man

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Wednesday that the Department of Justice will launch a federal investigation into the fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man shot and killed Tuesday after an altercation with two white police officers in Baton Rouge.

Sterling is one of at least 505 people who have been shot and killed by on-duty police officers so far in 2016, according to a Washington Post database tracking such shootings.

And his killing is the latest in a nationwide string of fatal police-involved arrests captured on video. Like many others, the first versions of what happened are coming more from a video showing a fragment of the incident than from police, who have had relatively little to say so far. Thus no clear picture has yet emerged of the full sequence of events that led to the death.

"The video is disturbing to say the least," Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said.

The bystander video of the shooting, which circulated online Tuesday evening, showed two Baton Rouge police officers attempting to detain Sterling after the officers responded to a call "from a complainant who stated that a black male who was selling music CD's and wearing a red shirt threatened him with a gun" outside the Triple S Food Mart, a convenience store, a Facebook post by the Baton Rouge Police Department said. Police said they responded about 12:35 a.m. Tuesday.

Sterling was shot and killed while pinned down by the officers.

"If you look at the video, it certainly speaks for itself," said state Rep. Edmond Jordan, an attorney representing Sterling's family, during a news conference Wednesday morning. "Mr. Sterling was not reaching for a weapon. He looks like a man who is trying to get his head up, who is actually fighting for his life. A life that ended immediately thereafter, almost as if he knew what was about to happen."

The cellphone video of the incident began with police standing a few feet from Sterling. A loud pop – like that of a stun gun – can be heard.

"Get on the ground!" a police officer yelled.

"Get on the ground!" the voice yelled again, followed by a second pop.

Sterling, a large man, remained on his feet.

A police officer tackled him over the hood of a silver car, then onto the ground.

Meanwhile, another restrained his left arm behind his back and knelt on it.

"He's got a gun!" someone yelled.

"Gun! Gun!"

Both officers drew their pistols from their holsters. In the video, Sterling appeared to be fairly immobile.

Then, the officers shouted something unintelligible, which seemed to include the phrase "going for the gun."

Two noises that sounded like shots rang out immediately after.

Whoever filmed the video then dropped the cellphone.

"Oh, – – – -," someone said.

Three more shot-like sounds rang out.

"They shot him?"

"Yes."

"Oh, my- – – – – – goodness."

Sterling was pronounced dead on the scene when an ambulance arrived at 12:46 a.m..

"Get on the ground," the voice yelled again, followed by a second pop.

"The FBI's New Orleans Division, the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Louisiana have opened a civil rights investigation into the death of Alton Sterling," Justice Department spokesman David Jacobs, said in a statement. "The Justice Department will collect all available facts and evidence and conduct a fair, thorough and impartial investigation."

East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William "Beau" Clark said the initial autopsy reports show Sterling suffered more than two gunshot wounds to his chest and back and that he died from a a homicide, the Advocate reported.

In a statement, Baton Rouge Police Cpl. L'Jean McKneely Jr. said two officers "have been placed on administrative leave per standard procedure," though it is believed that only one officer fired shots.

The officers have not been named.

"Our guys will most likely review the video tomorrow," McKneely told The Washington Post in an email Tuesday night.

"We give officers normally a day or so to go home and think about it" before being interviewed, McKneely told the Advocate.

Police had released no further details as of early Wednesday morning.

Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden told WBRZ that a full investigation will be conducted.

"This is not going to be a coverup," Holden said.

Family members, though, were outraged at what they said was a deadly instance of racial profiling.

Sandra Sterling, an aunt who said she had raised Alton as her son after his mother died, compared Tuesday's killing to the fatal police-involved shooting of a white 6-year-old in November in Marksville, Louisiana, after which two Louisiana officers were arrested and charged with murder.

"All I want is justice for my child," Sterling told The Post over the phone Tuesday night, her voice shredded by shouting and grief. "I want the same treatment y'all are giving that person in Marksville that killed that little white baby. I want that same kind of justice."

"I don't think they would have did that to a white person," added Neco Sterling, one of Alton's cousins.

Abdullah Muflahi, the shop's owner, said he witnessed the event and offered his account to various local outlets.

"[Police] were really aggressive with him from the start," Muflahi told the Advocate.

Muflahi said that police shot Sterling with a stun gun – as the video suggested – but that the suspect remained standing. Police then tackled him and pinned him down. One yelled "gun," then one fired four to six shots into Sterling.

Muflahi told the Advocate, "His hand was nowhere [near] his pocket," and that Sterling was not holding a weapon.

Then, Muflahi said that the officer who fired the shots began cursing and that both seemed to be "freaking out."

Finally, the store owner said he heard one of the officers say, "Just leave him."

Muflahi said he saw police retrieve a gun from Sterling's pocket after the shooting.

"God bless his soul. It could've, it could have, it could have been handled differently. Much differently. On both sides it could have been handled differently," Muflahi told WLBT.

The video has sparked outrage both in Louisiana and across the country.

A crowd began gathering outside the Triple S Food Mart about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday – swelling to more than 200 people at one point – and didn't dissipate until well after 2 a.m. Wednesday.

The crowd held signs with phrases such as "Justice for Alton" and "#NoJusticeNoPeace" scrawled on them in black sharpie and chanted familiar phrases.

"Hands up, don't shoot." "Black lives matter."

Among the protesters was Nicholas Belson, 23, a recent graduate of Louisiana State University's main campus, which is housed in Baton Rouge.

"I came out because I felt frustrated. You just feel like you have to do something. I live here," Belson told the Advocate. "Once it starts hitting where you live, you start feeling the fear."

Throughout the night, protesters set off fireworks and cars spun their tires, creating clouds of smoke. Passing drivers honked their car horns, seemingly in solidarity. Meanwhile, Muflahi brought bottles of water and sodas to the crowds protesting outside his store.

On a table in front of the convenience store sat a wreath of flowers, a stuffed dog and several burned CDs. Above it hung a sign stating "RIP Big Alton."

At a news conference Wednesday morning, the local NAACP president called for Baton Rouge police chief Carl Dabadie Jr. to resign. Dabadie, who did not respond to requests for comment, is expect to address the media on Wednesday afternoon.

"What I'm calling for today is that the chief law enforcement officer to fire the police chief," said Michael McClanahan, the Baton Rouge NAACP president. "He must step down. We cannot have anybody who allows this type of action to take place."

"This must be answered for," he added. "It should not take national attention for us to get an answer about a man being murdered by police officers."

Alton Sterling's name was trending on Twitter on Tuesday night, with many users saying the video called to mind Eric Garner, the black man who was placed in choke-hold by New York Police in July 2014 and subsequently died. "Black Lives Matter" became a trending search on Tumblr. Celebrities took to Twitter to express their feelings, including Andy Richter, MC Hammer and Amy Schumer.

Sandra Sterling said the viral video of her nephew's killing was excruciating to watch.

"That video is everywhere now," she said. "It hurts me to see it. I can see the picture, but I don't want to hear the sound. The sound gets me. It gives me an anxiety attack when I hear the sound."

At the same time, however, she said she was glad the video emerged.

Before it was posted online, police and news media "twisted" the story to make Alton "seem like the bad guy," she said.

"They had already prosecuted him," she said. "Now their attitude has changed."

Sterling said she learned of her nephew's death minutes after it happened, when a neighbor who witnessed the shooting called her. She raced to the convenience store, where she could see a pair of legs sticking out from behind a car.

"Is that my son?" she asked police officers. "Is he dead?"

When the officers refused to answer, she pressed closer in an attempt to see whether it was Alton.

"They said, 'Get back,' or they were going to Tase me," she told The Post. "They pulled their Tasers out."

She then backed away and went around to the other side of the building to get a better look. By then, however, police had moved Alton's body, she said.

"It was terrible," she said. "I didn't know if he was dead."

Eventually, another officer arrived and told her that the body did belong to her nephew.

According to the Advocate, Alton Sterling had a criminal record dating back to 1996 that included aggravated battery, domestic abuse, possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute and illegally carrying a weapon with a controlled dangerous substance.

Sandra Sterling acknowledged that her nephew had a rap sheet but said he had "paid his debt to society."

She described him as a "generous" giant. At 6-foot-4 and more than 300 pounds, Alton had only recently gotten out of jail and was living in Living Waters Outreach Ministry, a Christian transitional living center. Though he was struggling to get his life back on track, he still "gave away more CDs than he sold."

"When Alton ate, everybody ate," she said.

Sandra's son, Elliott Sterling, said his cousin Alton was well known in Baton Rouge for being a silver-tongued salesman. On holidays such as the Fourth of July, Alton stayed outside the Triple S hawking his CDs and DVDs until 2 or 3 in the morning.

"He was really good at selling those CDs," Elliott Sterling recalled. "If somebody asked for blues or country music, he'd know it all. He couldn't make it in a regular job, but he could make it selling CDs. He could converse with everybody."

He said Alton had four boys who, like him, will now grow up without a father.

"He had a hard life. He didn't have no mama, no daddy," Elliott said. "He wasn't stable at all. He lived day to day based on what he made."

He and his mother both doubted that Alton tried to pull a weapon on police, as the officers appear to shout in the video. Elliott said his cousin had been robbed at least once outside the convenience store and could have been carrying a gun "for protection," but would never have pulled it on officers.

"He had his hands up when the officer tackled him," Elliott said. "Even if he did have a gun [in his pocket], he couldn't get it out with them holding him down like that."

Sandra Sterling, a bail bond recovery agent in Baton Rouge, went further.

"Alton never had a gun. I know my child," she claimed. "My take is that when they moved him, when they pulled him up so the public could no longer see him, that gun was put in his pocket."

Baton Rouge Police have not said whether a gun was found on Sterling.