No charges in police shooting
A pair of white police officers in Baton Rouge, La., will not be prosecuted by 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 Tuesday, almost 11 months after the U.S. Department of Justice declined to bring charges in the death of the man, Alton Sterling. The attorney general’s decision was widely expected, in part because officers are rarely charged in connection with onduty shootings.
In a separate written report that described the efforts by the officers to gain control of Sterling, as well as their belief that he was armed, 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 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, Sterling, ended up in a confrontation that left 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 U.S. policing.
Sterling had a long criminal history, including convictions for battery and illegal possession of a gun.
Salamoni and Lake have been on paid leave since the shooting.