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National
New Video In Alton Sterling Shooting Stirs Anger
With questions and anger bubbling up nationwide, the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights division took over the investigation Wednesday of a fatal shoot- ing — captured on at least two graphic videos — of a Black man by two Baton Rouge, La., police officers.
The move came only hours after leaders of the city’s black community joined family members of the victim, Alton Sterling, 37, at a news conference to call for more protests and for the inquiry to be turned over to state and federal authorities.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who an- nounced the federal involve- ment at a news conference, said he had “serious con- cerns” about the shooting
based on information from police and the video of the shooting that took place out- side of a convenience store. “The video is disturb- ing, to say the least,” Ed- wards said.
Edwards told reporters that the inquiry, originally in
the hands of local police, would be handled “impar- tially, professionally and thoroughly.” He said the agency’s civil rights division would be in charge of the probe, assisted by the FBI and Louisiana State Police.
A second video surfaced
late Wednesday that appears to show the incident in the parking lot of a convenience store, The Daily Beast re- ported.
The media outlet said the store owner, Abdul Mu- flahi, provided the new video and reported it does not appear to support the claim that Sterling’s sup- posed gun represented an ac- tive threat to the officers. Seconds after the shooting, one of the officers is seen removing an object from Sterling’s right pants pocket.
Officers identified
At a news conference Wednesday, Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie called the fatal shooting a “horrible tragedy.”
He identified the officers in- volved as Blane Salamoni, a four-year member of the department and Howie Lake, II, who has been on the force for three years.
He did not identify their race, but said they have been placed on administrative leave pending an investiga- tion.
Lake was placed on ad- ministrative leave once be- fore, in 2014, along with five other officers, as a result of a police-involved shoot- ing, WAFB-TV reported.
The incident involved a suspect who crashed his car while trying to elude officers. The suspect then began shooting at officers, who re- turned fire, hitting him mul- tiple times but not killing him.
ALTON STERLING
Sandra Sterling (middle), Alton Sterling’s aunt, at the prayer vigil for Alton Sterling.
Minnesota Man Shot And
Brutal Cop Killing Of
Killed By Cops; Girlfriend
Beloved Dad ‘A Modern
Pleads For Help On Facebook
Day Lynching’
A woman livestreamed the heartbreaking moments after her boyfriend was shot and killed by a cop in Minnesota late Wednesday.
In a Facebook video, Lav- ish Reynolds claims that the couple were pulled over in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for a busted taillight and that her boyfriend, identified as Philando Castile, was shot four or five times.
She said that Castile told the officer he was carrying a permitted firearm and had been reaching for his wallet before the officer opened fire.
“Please no, don’t let him be gone. Why?!” Reynolds yells on her video as Castile, 32, slumps back in the driver’s seat of his car, blood running across his shirt.
A St. Anthony police offi- cer can be seen outside the car, his gun drawn on Castile. Reynolds, who like Castile is Black, describes him as Asian.
“I told him not to reach for it,” the cop says as he contin- ues to point his weapon into the vehicle. “I told him to get his hand off it.”
Castile’s girlfriend Dia- mond Reynolds livestreamed the moments di- rectly after he was shot. At right, an unidentified officer points his weapon at Castile as he lies bleeding.
Near the end of the clip, Reynolds starts to scream as she sits handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser with her young daughter.
“It’s OK, mama,” the little
Philando Castile, 32, was shot and killed by police dur- ing a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday evening. (FACEBOOK)
girl says as her mother pleads for help from Facebook view- ers. “It’s OK, I’m right here with you.”
St. Anthony cops con- firmed the shooting took place in Falcon Heights, a sleepy St. Paul suburb that hosts the state fair, around 9 p.m.
Castile, a cafeteria super- visor at a local Montessori school, later died at Hennepin County Medical Center.
In Reynolds’ video, an officer said that she was being detained. An employee at the Ramsey County Communica- tion Center confirmed early Thursday that she had been questioned by police and re- leased, though did not have information about which po- lice force questioned her.
On social media, Castile’s friends and rela- tives expressed their grief at the sudden and violent loss.
Lavish Reynolds, who was in the car with Castile and a small child as the incident took place, wailed as she demanded to know why police had shot her boyfriend. (LAVISH REYNOLDS VIA FACEBOOK)
“My family will never be the same!!! This has rocked me to the core!!! I lost my cousin to the hands of the po- lice,” IRok Wilson posted.
St. Anthony interim Police Chief Jon Mangseth told reporters Wednesday night that two of his officers were the ones at the traffic stop with Castile.
He said that he was aware of the Facebook video, which was taken down before being put back up early Thursday, but did not have details about it.
Mangseth said early Thursday that the officer who opened fire was on paid ad- ministrative leave. He also noted that he could not re- member another officer-in- volved shooting in the immediate area.
Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is in- vestigating the incident.
BY SHAUN KING
Antwun “Ronnie” Shumpert was pulled over on a routine traffic stop when he ran and was pursued by police in Tupelo, Miss.
Such is the case of the po- lice killing of Antwun “Ron- nie” Shumpert on Saturday, June 18th in Tu- pelo, Miss. What the police are saying (and what they have so far not said) just isn’t quite adding up.
Shumpert, a beloved 37- year-old father of five, was pulled over for a “routine traf- fic stop” while driving the car of his friend, Charles Fos- ter. Police have not yet said what that routine traffic vio- lation was. That alone has caused many to believe it was a “driving while Black” type of stop.
Whatever the case, after he was pulled over, some- thing clearly spooked Shumpert and he ran from the vehicle. A nearby camera showed as much.
A K-9 officer chased Shumpert down and mauled his testicles before the man was shot in the chest by Officer Tyler Cook.
Officer Tyler Cook, who lawyer Carlos Moore says pulled Shumpert over, then let a K-9 loose. Cops
ANTWUN “RONNIE” SHUMPERT
claim the K-9 found Shumpert, who then “emerged from hiding and at- tacked” the dog and the offi- cer.
But whatever actually happened ended with the dog repeatedly biting Shumpert in the testicles, mutilating them, Shumpert having several of his teeth knocked out and others apparently kicked deep into his gums, and him ultimately being shot repeatedly in the chest by the officer.
“We believe the officer just went berserk,” Attorney Carlos Moore told Think Progress. “It was a modern day lynching.”
Shumpert died five hours later at the North Mis- sissippi Medical Center.
The pictures of Shumpert taken at the hos- pital are unthinkably brutal.
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