Access to videos surrounding Alton Sterling’s death sought by his family’s lawyers
16th October 2017 · 0 Comments
Attorneys representing the children of Alton Sterling, the 37-year-old father of five slain by Baton Rouge police on July 5, 2016, have formally asked the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office to grant them access to the video and audio recordings of the incident, The New Orleans Advocate recently reported.
In a Sept. 22, 2017 letter sent to La. Attorney General Jeff Landry, whose decision it will be whether to file state charges against Sterling’s killer after East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore recused himself from the case, lawyers representing the family requested a private viewing of the videos, which include footage from police body cameras, and a surveillance video from the Triple S Store that captures the moments before and after Sterling was fatally shot by police.
Sterling was selling mix tape CDs and DVDs outside the store when he was approached by two Baton Rouge police. Shortly after their arrival, Sterling was wrestled to the ground and shot by one of the officers at point-blank range.
The Sterling shooting and the officer-involved shooting of Philando Castille near Minneapolis, Minnesota a day later sparked a series of nationwide protests that ultimately led to the slaying of five law enforcement officers in Dallas, Texas and three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge, La.
In May, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would not file federal criminal charges against BRPD Officer Blane Salamoni, who fired six shots into Sterling, and Officer Howie Lake II, who tasered Sterling and helped to wrestle him to the ground but did not fire his handgun.
The La. Attorney General’s Office is now investigating the incident.
Atlanta-based attorney L. Chris Stewart, one of several lawyers representing the family, told The New Orleans Advocate in early October that the Attorney General’s Office had not yet responded to the letter dated Sept. 22.
Ruth Wisher, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office, told The New Orleans Advocate on Oct. 5 that the office would not comment on the case as it continues to conduct its investigation of the incident.
The video footage of Sterling’s death was provided by bystanders who captured the violent encounter on their cellphones and released them to the public. Shortly after the incident, police confiscated the Triple S Store’s video surveillance of the incident and has not released it, prompting a lawsuit by the store’s owner who was reportedly detained in a hot police car after the shooting and was forced to relieve himself on the side of his store.
Although it announced it would not prosecute the officers involved in the incident, the DOJ officials held a closed-door meeting with lawyers and family members in May during which they described some of the evidence contained on the video and audio tapes.
A source told The Advocate that Officer Salamoni can be seen in one of the videos pointing a gun at Alton Sterling’s head while shouting a profanity-laced threat to kill him.
“We understand that there’s body camera footage that captures the entire incident beforehand,” Stewart told The New Orleans Advocate. “We believe the body camera footage will show Salamoni getting out and putting his gun to Sterling’s head for no reason.”
“We need this information for our civil lawsuit,” Stewart added. “It’s hampering our investigation, and you have the lawsuit proceeding especially because the city of Baton Rouge has done nothing to resolve this civil case.”
While Stewart said that Sterling’s children would not watch the video footage, he said that adult family members could view it if granted permission by the Attorney General’s Office. He said that he would be satisfied with an attorney-only viewing because it would allow him and the other lawyers retained by the family to move forward with a civil lawsuit.
“In many cases family and their legal representatives are allowed to review footage in person while being investigated, yet this has not happened in the Sterling case,” the attorneys tell the Attorney General’s Office in the letter. “This in no way interferes with your investigation. There is no legal basis to not allow a private review of the requested footage.”
The other four lawyers representing the Sterling family are Justin Bamberg, Dale Glover, Brandon DeCuir and Michael Adams. The five attorneys are representing Sterling’s five children and their mothers. Andricka Williams is the mother of three of Sterling’s children and Quinyetta McMillon and Kimberly Pierson are each the mother of one of his two remaining children.
After a 10-month DOJ probe, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office is in the fifth month of its investigation.
“It’s taking a long time, but if the end result is justice for the Sterling family then that’s fine,” Stewart said. “It’s disappointing how long the city has taken to handle the civil suit. Typically these types of cases are resolved pretty quickly but that’s politics.”
This article originally published in the October 16, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
