B.R. cops who killed Alton Sterling won’t face federal charges
8th May 2017 · 0 Comments
Nearly 10 months after two white Baton Rouge police officers killed Alton Sterling outside a food mart, news leaked that the U.S. Department of Justice won’t file federal civil rights charges against BRPD Officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II for the July 5, 2016 fatal shooting.
Sterling, a 37-year-old father of five, was shot at point-blank range by police outside the Triple S. Food Mart in South Baton Rouge, where he sold CD mixtapes and DVDs. His killing, and that of Philando Castile in Minneapolis, MN just days later, touched off a firestorm of angry protests across the nation and ultimately led to the killing of five law enforcement officers in Dallas, Texas and three officers in Baton Rouge, La.
News of the DOJ’s decision not to file federal civil rights charges against Salamoni and Lake was first reported by The Washington Post, The Associated Press and The New York Times with all three media outlets citing unidentified sources.
The DOJ decision comes just weeks after Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo that said he would seek to determine if the DOJ still needs to utilize federal consent decrees to police local law enforcement agencies.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who had been asking for cooler heads to prevail once the DOJ reached a decision, declined to comment after the news broke, as did La. AG Jeff Landry, both of whom hail from families with law enforcement backgrounds.
Landry, who said the DOJ had not contacted him, will now have to determine whether state charges against Salamoni and Lake are warranted since East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore recused himself from the case last year.
The family of Alton Sterling was not pleased about getting the news from someone other than Justice Department officials.
“We have been promised that we will meet in person with DOJ before any announcement is made,” attorneys representing the Sterling family said in a statement on Tuesday of last week.
A number of elected officials expressed dissatisfaction and disappointment about the DOJ’s decision being made public before the family had been notified.
“I am appalled that this news, whether true or false, has been disseminated without a formal decision being relayed to the Sterling family first,” Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston-Broome said. “No one in my office or the governor’s office has been notified by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of a decision or timeline.”
“It certainly doesn’t help with establishing trust,” State Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, said in reference to the public getting news of the DOJ decision from the media. “This is more disappointing to the family. They didn’t deserve to find out like this.”
U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that the way that the story was leaked, “completely undermines the credibility and transparency” of the U.S. Department of Justice.
“The Sterling family deserved to be notified directly by the Department of Justice long before this decision became front-page news in a national media outlet,” the Urban League of Louisiana said in a statement Wednesday.
“Many have become desensitized to police shootings, and do not feign shock when officers are not held accountable. Instead, it’s chalked up to flaws in the system. However, we must confront the real criminal justice reform that’s needed in this country so that our laws do more to actually provide justice rather than shield those with the greatest responsibility to the public from the law. It is incumbent upon us to give our voices and our votes to the continuing battle for equity and justice. As the Sterling family said today, the battle is not over; it has only just begun.”
In the wake of the DOJ decision not to file federal charges against the two officers, there has been a growing demand for the termination and prosecution of the officers as the family and community learn more about the incident.
Family members, residents and justice advocates were appalled by reports that said Officer Salamoni threatened and cussed at Sterling and pointed a gun toward Sterling’s head within seconds of the officers’ arrival at the Triple S Food Mart.
“At a minimum, these officers need to be disciplined and fired,” Michael Adams, an attorney representing Sterling’s three youngest children, told The New Orleans Advocate.
As La. Attorney General Jeff Landry ponders filing state charges against the two officers, a BRPD spokesman told The New Orleans Advocate that an Internal Affairs probe of the fatal shooting is ongoing.
L. Chris Stewart, an attorney representing Sterling’s two oldest children, said that within 20 seconds Salamoni pointed a gun at Sterling’s head and told him, “I’m going to kill you, bitch!”
The Advocate reported that two law enforcement officials who reviewed body-camera footage from the July 5. 2016 incident said that Salamoni used profanities and repeatedly threatened to shoot Sterling but did not use the word “kill.”
During a private, two-hour meeting with the family, federal officials reportedly criticized Officer Salamoni’s actions and called them “disturbing.”
“They hands-down agree the actions of the police officers that night were outrageous, were inappropriate, were not following procedure, were unexplainable,” Steward told The Advocate.
“For the community, (firing the officers) tells us that police officers, when they violate policy, they are taken off of the force,” State Rep. Ted James said. “That goes a long way toward establishing trust.”
This article originally published in the May 8, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
