Vox:

In his last few minutes of life, Alton Sterling seemed completely immobile. Two Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police officers had pinned him to the floor, flat on his back. But even as Sterling seemed completely unable to move, one of the police officers yelled, "He’s got a gun!" Within seconds, an officer shot Sterling, who was still pinned to the ground by the cops. Sterling died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to an autopsy.

The horrifying bystander video is here.


Peter Rosenberg, a DJ at New York's HOT 97, completely lost it on a police officer this morning:

Sterling's son broke down during a press conference:

Like Che Taylor, gunned down by Seattle police in February, Alton was a sex offender with a lengthy criminal record. This is irrelevant. Vox again:

But his previous convictions aren’t what’s relevant to the shooting; it’s whether he was holding and trying to use a gun at the time he was shot. The legal standard for use of force requires officers to reasonably perceive a threat at the moment of use of force...

Shop owner Abdullah Muflahi told the Advocate that the officers were "aggressive" from the start, and that Sterling was armed but was not holding his gun and didn’t have his hand near his pocket at the time of the shooting.