[Newly Released Video] Alton Sterling Was Not Holding A Gun When He Was Killed By Police

A video emerged Wednesday exposing the fact that Alton Sterling was not holding a gun when police fatally shot and killed him in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday. 

The Daily Beast first published the troubling video, obtained from Abdullah Muflahi, the owner of the convenience store where the shooting took place. Muflahi stated to the news organization that Sterling was causing no trouble and had been a “welcome presence at the store for years.”

Two white police officers shot and killed Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, as he sold CDs in the convenience store’s parking lot early Tuesday morn. The officers were responding to a complaint about an armed man threatening people outside the convenience store. 

The eyewitness cell phone video of Sterling’s death entered social media circulation on Tuesday. It showed Sterling on the ground, restrained underneath two officers. Sometime during the ordeal, one of the police officers shouted, “He’s got a gun!” One of the officers is then seen holding a gun at Sterling’s chest at near point-blank range. Seconds later, Sterling is shot multiple times.

When they arrived at the scene paramedics pronounced Sterling dead.

Police have claimed that Sterling was armed, but the newly released video does not show Sterling holding a weapon or conducting himself in a threatening manner.

The graphic footage, which was captured close to the event, appears to show two officers pinning Sterling to the ground moments before several rounds are fired at him. Moments later, one of the officer’s shout and at least three more shots are heard. As one officer sits on the ground, the second officer is seen pulling an object from Sterling’s right pocket. Sterling, still alive and with a visible chest wound, moves his left arm toward his head and face.

The Advocate

WARNING - GRAPHIC CONTENT