BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE AND VIOLENCE.
Officer Blane Salamoni, one of two officers on the scene of the shooting, was terminated after a review by internal affairs.
The attached video is raw footage recorded from his body camera.
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Salamoni encountered Sterling outside a Baton Rouge convenience store in July 2016 after responding to a report that a man there had just threatened someone with a gun.
Salamoni was the second officer to arrive on the scene and found Sterling struggling with the first responding officer.
According to sources familiar with the case, Salamoni pointed his gun at Sterling’s head and told him he would “blow his f**king head off” if he did not put his hands on a nearby car.
The other officer, Howie Lake, did not fire any shots.
Both officers, who had been on paid administrative leave since the shooting, were cleared of any federal civil rights charges and any state criminal charges in the case.
Tuesday, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul announced he would wrap up the internal affairs investigation swiftly, likely by Friday. “Our examination will determine if any policies and procedures were violated by our officers during the incident,” he said. “We will look at decisions that were made during the incident and we will apply that behavior to our policies and procedures.”
THE SHOOTING
After Salamoni pointed a gun at Sterling, the struggled continued. A taser was deployed on Sterling but did not appear to have much effect on him.
On a cell phone video showing part of the shooting, Salamoni can be heard yelling that Sterling had a gun.
Salamoni then fired six shots.
After the shots are fired, Salamoni can be heard yelling “f**k!”.
A loaded handgun was then pulled from Sterling’s pocket, investigators said.
An autopsy showed Sterling had multiple illegal drugs in his system including cocaine.
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