Louisiana police officer who fatally shot black man is fired

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US-POLICE-SHOOTING

Louisiana police officer who fatally shot black man is fired

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The officer who shot dead a black
man in the southern US state of Louisiana has been fired, the Baton Rouge
police chief told journalists Friday.

News of the disciplinary measures came days after the state’s attorney
general said officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake — both of whom are white
— would not face charges in the 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling.

Salamoni was terminated effective immediately and Lake will be suspended
for three days over his involvement in the incident, Chief Murphy Paul said.

Sterling, 37, was fatally shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 5, 2016
in a scuffle with police outside a convenience store where he had been
selling CDs. The shooting was captured on cell phone video.

Paul said additional video footage of the incident would be released.

Salamoni’s firing comes as anger swells over another controversial police
shooting that saw the death of an unarmed black man in California’s capital
city of Sacramento.

The two cases have once again brought concerns over police misconduct to
the fore — fatal shootings of African-American suspects in recent years have
fueled a nationwide debate over race and criminal justice. In explaining the
decision not to press charges against the officers, Louisiana attorney
general Jeff Landry said Sterling was armed, under the influence of illegal
drugs and had resisted arrest efforts.

According to the Louisiana Justice Department report on the shooting, a
loaded .38 caliber handgun was found in the right front pocket of Sterling’s
pants.

BSS/AFP/MRI/0837 hrs