BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) – Protesters gathered at the Triple S food mart for the second day in a row grieving the loss of Alton Sterling.
Since News 10 has been covering the story, protests have been peaceful.
People have expressed their thoughts for the Sterling family through prayers, balloons, cards and artwork.
Including a mural on the front on the Triple S food mart.
But, no matter how hard family tries to fight back anger and pain in the loss of Alton, it overflows.
One woman chanted, “I’m broken! I’m so broken! I’m so broken! No justice, no peace! No Justice, no peace!”
The fight for justice in the shooting death of Alton Sterling brought out dozens of supporters from across the state and country into the streets of Baton Rouge.
Me’Kayla Whitenburg drove all the way from Atlanta to support Sterling and those who loved him.
Whitenburg saw the cellphone video that captured the altercation of BRPD officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake with Alton Sterling.
“I wasn’t able to get through the whole thing because it made me very emotional. I just kept thinking about my own family and how this is my brother, you know? I’m just at a loss for words. Something else happened last night, something else happened the day before, what’s going to happen tomorrow? I’m just hurt but we’re out here trying to be strong,” Whitenburg said.
As support grows around the country, 13,000 online donors have raised near $400,000 for the Sterling family in the first 23 hours.
What we currently know about Sterling is that he was a father of five and had many friends in the community, but he also had a long history with police.
- Police files show several battery, drug, and burglary charges.
- The files also include an arrest in 2009 for resisting an officer and illegally carrying a weapon.
- Sterling was also convicted as a sex offender in 2000 for carnal knowledge of a juvenile.
What we currently know about the police officers as of now are, Howie Lake II and Blane Salamoni are both 28 years old, and have seven years on the force between them.
Each officer has had two prior “Use of force” complaints filed against them but were cleared. The complaints against the officers involved three black men and a black juvenile.
- In 2014, Lake was one of six officers put on administrative leave following the shooting of 28-year-old sex offender Keven Knight.
- Knight survived the shooting and Lake was not charged.
- Lake was awarded a “Certificate of commendation” last year, according to the department’s Facebook page.
Salamoni is from a family of police officers,
- His dad is Captain Noel Salamoni, the commander of the Baton Rouge Police Department’s Special Ops Unit who was a finalist for the Chief’s job three years ago.
- Salamoni’s mother, Melissa, is a retired Police Captain.
- Salamoni received a letter of caution for his involvement in a preventable crash in 2012.
- He also won a police “Life Saving” award last year.
