African American Father of 5 Alton Sterling Shot Dead by White Policemen

An African American street seller and father of five, identified as Alton Sterling, was fatally shot by policemen in Louisiana, USA, on Tuesday, 5th of July, 2016.

According to Daily Mail, Sterling was shot six times during a confrontation with two white police officers, identified as 4-year veteran Blane Salamoni and three-year veteran Howie Lake II outside a Baton Rouge convenience store.

The police officers were said to have responded to a 911 call from somebody complaining about a black man selling CDs, who had allegedly threatened them with a gun.

The altercation between the officers and Sterling was captured on video, and its emergence has led to an outrage in the black community, with several thousand protesters taking to the streets on Wednesday night.

In the video, we can see the policemen throw and pin Sterling to the ground after disobeying their order to “get on the ground.” Sterling continues to move on the ground and one of the officers, believed to be Lake, reaches for his gun and points it at the street vendor’s chest.

The other officer shouts that he has a gun, and shortly after, the first shot is heard, followed quickly by another two. Then there are three more shots and Sterling remains still on the ground, bleeding profusely, before the shocked shop owner turns his camera away from the scene.

Although Baton Rouge police chief Carl Dabadie Jr. later confirmed that Sterling was indeed armed and a witness said they saw one of the officers pull the handgun out of Sterling’s pocket as he lay dying, it is not clear whether Sterling was reaching for his gun. But he was not holding it at the time he was shot, reports Daily Mail.

Sources say the father of five was licensed to carry a gun, which meant that it was legal for him to be armed in public in Louisiana, an open-carry state.

According to reports, police took CCTV footage from the store without the owner’s permission  after the deadly incident, but they said they would be handing the video over to investigators.

It has since emerged that Lake has been suspended before for a similar shooting of a black man.

At a press conference later held on the incident, Sterling’s 15-year-old son, Cameron Sterling, became emotional and cried uncontrollably as his mother, Quinyetta McMillan, who was also in tears, bemoaned the fact that the shooting had deprived her five children of their loving father who provided for them, Daily Mail reports.

She also mentioned that their eldest son, 15-year-old Cameron, has had to watch his father get killed repeatedly as the video of his death is shared around the world.

“He had to watch this as this was put all over the outlets. As a mother I have now been forced to raise a son who is going to remember what happened to his father,” she said.

Describing her deceased partner as a man who “simply tried to earn a living to take care of his children,” McMillan said, “The individuals involved in his murder took away a man with children who depended upon their daddy on a daily basis.”

In the wake of the fatal shooting, Michael McClanahan, the head of the Baton Rouge NAACP in Louisiana has called for the resignation of the police chief, Carl Dabadie.

He said, during a Wednesday morning news conference, that Baton Rouge could not afford to keep a leader who would allow such action to take place.

According to reports, the police chief has not stepped down. He held a press conference on Wednesday to update the public on the investigation and ask for protests to be peaceful.

 Watch the shooting below *Warning! Viewers discretion is advised*…..

Watch Cameron Sterling’s emotional reaction below …

Photo credits: ABC News/ CBS News/Alton Sterling/Facebook