BATON ROUGE – A 48-second video clip recorded by people who just purchased items from a convenience store in North Baton Rouge Tuesday morning captured an altercation that resulted in Baton Rouge Police shooting and killing Alton Sterling.
WBRZ editors have decided to post most of the video, but froze the video and silenced sound just before shots are fired.
The video posted on WBRZ.com and television editions of WBRZ showed an officer draw what appears to be his gun, and point it at Sterling who had been shoved to the ground. In the entire video, as many as three or more shots are heard and people scream.
The video begins with two officers interacting with Sterling and appears to have their guns drawn. About 14 seconds into the video, the officers tackle Sterling to the ground and shots are heard about 19 seconds later, 33 seconds into the video.
The person who gave the video to WBRZ said they started recording when they got inside their car after being inside Triple S convenience store. The witness asked not to be identified but said police used tasers at least twice before Sterling was tackled. The witness said the tasers did not have any effect on Sterling but he did not appear to be fighting.
Baton Rouge Police said they were not going to comment on the video, which was first shown by WBRZ during the station's 6 o'clock news Tuesday evening. However, sources said the chief was scheduling a news conference Wednesday morning. The shooting happened Tuesday morning at 12:30.
Sterling had a gun in his pocket, police said. The man who owns the store where the shooting happened said he saw police take the gun out of Sterling's pocket after he was shot and killed.
By Tuesday night, a sizable protest was organized outside the store at the corner of Fairfields and North Foster. People who gathered said they will be out all night. They were chanting, "Black lives matter" and shouted expletives about police.
A preliminary coroner's report showed Sterling died of multiple gun shot wounds to the back and chest.
