Black man shot by Louisiana police mourned in Baton Rouge

By Kathy Finn

BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) – Civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton joined hundreds of mourners in Louisiana on Friday to remember a black man killed last week by white policemen, one of two deadly encounters that led to protests against racial bias in law enforcement.

As heavy rain fell outside, a steady stream of people filed into an activity center at Baton Rouge’s Southern University to view the body of 37-year-old Alton Sterling, whose open casket was surrounded by flowers and photographs.

The visitation was held at the center to accommodate the large crowd that turned out to pay their respects to the father of five known as “Big Alton.” Police shot him at a close quarters on July 5 as he sold CDs outside a convenience store, an incident that was recorded on a cellphone.

“We’re not anti police, we’re anti wrong,” Rev. Sharpton told the mourners in condemning Sterling’s killing, which came during the same week as the fatal shooting of a young black man in Minnesota by a police officer.

Among the mourners was Minerva Dunn, who serves in the U.S. Army and worships at the same church as Sterling’s aunt, who raised him after his parents passed away.

“I am ripped apart by this,” Dunn said. “My husband is a police officer, I’m a soldier, and I have two black sons,” she said. “I am so disheartened, and my hurt comes from different places.”

The deaths in Louisiana and Minnesota renewed outrage against law enforcement’s treatment of minorities and also rekindled a national debate on race relations that began after police-involved killings two years ago.

Then in Dallas last Thursday, one of the protests ended with the killing of five policemen in a racially motivated attack by a black U.S. military veteran who opened fire on white officers. The rampage highlighted the dangers routinely faced by law enforcement officers, while adding a new element of concern about the racially tinged violence that has shocked many Americans.

“Nobody condones killing cops, nobody stands up for what happened in Dallas, but I want to see some of you stand up in Louisiana and say we think it is wrong when cops do wrong,” Sharpton said.

Carl Slaughter, a Baton Rouge resident who has run a community center for 35 years, remembered Sterling as a teenager who spent many hours there after the death of his parents.

“He was a good kid, always good natured, and everybody has good memories of him,” Slaughter said.

He said he sympathized with police but even so, he thinks Sterling’s killing was unjust, based on video footage of the incident he watched on television.

Sterling was shot and killed in the store’s parking lot during an altercation with two white officers responding to a 911 call about a man threatening someone with a gun. The incident was recorded by the shop owner.

According to an affidavit, the officers tried to restrain Sterling and deployed Tasers. But they used deadly force after Sterling reached for a gun in his pants pocket, it said.

The U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

“This fight for social justice and police reform will require us to agitate, legislate and litigate,” Representative Cedric Richmond, a Democrat whose congressional district stretches from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, said during the service.

(Writing by Frank McGurty; editing by Grant McCool and Tom Brown)