WARNING: Video contains graphic images and profanity
BATON ROUGE, La. – Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot to death in Baton Rouge as he lay on the ground with two police officers on top of him Tuesday morning.
Sterling died of several gunshot wounds to the chest and back.
A video of the incident, which was posted to social media, has sparked national attention.
Edmond Jordan, an attorney representing Sterling’s aunt, Sandra Sterling, and the mother of Alton Sterling’s child, confirmed to CNN that the individual shot in the video is Sterling.
His family has seen the tape.
“[They] are taking it hard right now … overwhelmed with grief,” Jordan said.
Jordan also told CNN that he’s been told the officers’ body cameras fell off in the struggle.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said the cellphone video “disturbing to say the least.”
The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave, as is standard following an officer-involved shooting.
Cpl. L’Jean McKneely said officers responded to the store about 12:35 a.m. Tuesday after an anonymous caller indicated a man selling music CDs and wearing a red shirt threatened him with a gun.
The owner of the convenience store where Sterling was killed says he’s sure the incident was caught on his store’s surveillance cameras, though he hasn’t seen it. Police took the video later Tuesday, he told CNN.
Gov. Edwards said during a news conference on Wednesday that the U.S. Justice Department would investigate the shooting of Sterling. In turn, the Justice Department said it will open a civil rights investigation.
Agency spokesman David Jacobs said Wednesday that the FBI’s New Orleans Division and the U.S. attorney’s office will look into whether the officers willfully violated Sterling’s civil rights through the use of unreasonable or excessive force.
The man who shot the video speaks out
The man who says he shot the video says he has been distributing the footage on social media as a service to the community.
Arthur Reed told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that he and a team from his company, Stop the Killing Inc., made the video early Tuesday. Reed says his company shoots documentary-style videos about killings in Baton Rouge.
Reed says that on the day of Sterling’s death, two teams of people drove to the scene, outside a convenience store, after hearing about the incident on police radio.
Reed described the scene: “They were already messing with him, and it escalated. After the shots, we left.”
The video is filmed from inside a car. It starts by pointing down, with camera facing the witness’ car’s dashboard. A single pop is heard, and then you can hear someone yell “get on the ground.” Another pop follows.
The camera then pans up to two officers confronting a man in a red shirt, which is Sterling. One officer then brings Sterling to the ground. Once he’s down, the officer begins to assist the second officer in restraining Sterling. At this point, the officer who first brought down Sterling is behind a car and cannot be seen.
“He’s got a gun,” someone is heard saying seconds later.
The officer who is still in view of the camera can be seen drawing something from his waist — it’s not clear what the object is.
Some yelling ensues, after which two bangs can be heard.
Those inside the car react, and the camera pans back down. Three more bangs can be heard, and a woman in the car starts crying.
The shooting and video have fueled anger and protests.
The ‘CD man’
Sterling was known as the “CD man,” a laid-back guy who would sell tunes and DVDs outside the convenience store where he was shot, according to local media.
Abdullah Muflahi, the owner of the Triple S Food Mart, told CNN he’s known Sterling for six years.
He let Sterling sell CDs in front of the store. He says Sterling never got into fights.
Muflahi was there the night Sterling was killed; he says he saw the officers slam Sterling on a car.
“They told him not to move,” Muflahi said. “He was asking them what he did wrong.”
He says the officers then used a stun gun on him at least once before shooting.
Both got on top of him, and one ordered him not to move.
The one closest to Sterling’s legs yelled “gun,” and the shots followed.
After the shooting, as Sterling lay there, an officer reached into Sterling’s pocket and pulled out a gun.
When it was over, Muflahi says he heard the officers talking on the scene, saying they had been called there due to a complaint that Sterling had pulled a gun on someone.
But Muflahi said he never saw a prior confrontation between Sterling and anyone that night. And he wasn’t aware of any incident that someone would have called about.
“Just five minutes before,” Muflahi said, “he walked into the store getting something to drink, joking around, [and we were] calling each other names.”
Additional reporting by CNN and the Associated Press
