The two police officers who shot Alton Sterling back in 2016 when he was resisting arrest have finally been vindicated by the Louisiana AG:
NY TIMES – A pair of white police officers in Baton Rouge, La., will not be prosecuted by the state authorities in a fatal shooting of a black man there almost two years ago. The decision brings another closely watched and widely scrutinized investigation of potential police misconduct to an end without charges.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced his conclusion at a news conference on Tuesday, almost 11 months after the United States Department of Justice declined to bring charges in the death of the man, Alton B. Sterling, was widely expected, in part because officers are rarely charged in connection with on-duty shootings.
In a separate written report that described the efforts by the officers to gain control of Mr. Sterling, as well as their belief that he was armed, Mr. Landry’s office said it had “concluded that the officers in question acted as reasonable officers under existing law and were justified in their use of force.”
The decisions by Mr. Landry and by the Justice Department effectively end the threat of criminal prosecutions against Officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II. The officers were called to the Triple S Food Mart on July 5, 2016, to respond to a report that a black man in a red shirt had brandished a gun and threatened someone. The officers and the man, Mr. Sterling, ended up in a confrontation that left Mr. Sterling dead, prompted large protests in Baton Rouge, the Louisiana capital, and broadened the national debate about law enforcement tactics and the influence of race on American policing.
After this report came out, the coroner’s report was released:
BREAKING: Coroner releases final autopsy report showing Alton Sterling had traces of cocaine, cannabinoids and methamphetamine in his system when he died in July 2016. @WVLALocal33 @wgmbfox44
— Harrison Golden (@harrisongolden) March 27, 2018
I’m sure there will be protests or something over this decision, but from what I remember of the video this is the right decision. Sterling was reaching for something in his pocket that I believe was a gun, while resisting cops, and it all just made for a horrible situation.