A graphic video which showed the shooting of Alton Sterling went viral on social media early Tuesday morning, sparking another outcry against police brutality.
Shortly after midnight officers responded to an anonymous disturbance call in Baton Rouge, LA. The caller said that a black man in a red shirt who was selling CDs had threatened the caller with a gun outside Triple S Food Mart, said the Baton Rouge Police Department.
According to store owner Abdullah Muflahi, Sterling sold CDs outside of the Louisiana store for years and was even given the nickname “CD man” by locals.
Two white officers confronted the 37-year-old around 12:35 a.m. The videos that captured the incident shows the two officers tase and then wrestle Sterling to the ground before multiple gunshots were fired in Sterling’s chest and back from at least one officer.
In the video an officer can be heard yelling “You [f***ing] move, I swear to God,” and shouted, “Gun!” before shooting about five to seven times. Sterling can then be seen lying on his back and bleeding from his chest.
Sterling was pronounced dead at the scene.
Lt. Jonny Dunnam said at a press conference that the body-cam footage may not be as good as investigators hoped for because the cameras became dislodged during the altercation.
Muflahi said that Sterling started to carry a gun a few days ago, after a friend who also sold CDs was robbed at a different location. Louisiana is an open-carry state.
Social media has had a strong reaction to the circulating videos and the #AltonSterling hashtag that started to trend on Tuesday night on Twitter.
On the Los Angeles Snapchat Story News section there was a ‘Reactions to Alton Sterling Shooting’, which showed people expressing their thoughts with captions of basic information about the incident.
Celebrities like Zendaya, Olivia Wilde, Meek Mill and 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick have also taken to social media to express their opinions and send prayers to the family.
“That video is everywhere now,” said Sandra Sterling, Sterling’s aunt, in an interview with the Washington Post. “The video was difficult to watch.”
Quinyetta McMillon, mother of Sterling’s eldest son Cameron, spoke about the shooting and the video at a press conference on Wednesday.
“[Cameron] had to watch this as this was put all over the outlets,” she said. “The individuals involved in his murder took away a man with children who depended upon their daddy on a daily basis.”
Over 200 protestors flooded to the streets in Louisiana Tuesday night to show support for Sterling by holding signs and chanting “No justice, no peace.”
Sterling is now the 505th person to be shot and killed by a police officer this year, according to a Washington Post police fatality database..
A 2015 survey conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that three out of five African-Americans say they or a family member have been treated unfairly by police enforcement because of their race.
According to an analysis by The Washington Post and researchers at Bowling Green State University, cops are rarely charged for on-duty shootings.
The officers involved in the shooting, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, are now on paid administrative leave while the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division leads the investigation.