An eyewitness account has emerged on video (watch above) in the Baton Rouge police shooting of 37-year-old CD seller Alton Sterling. The man who says he witnessed the shooting, store owner Abdullah Muflahi, also says he doesn’t think police needed to shoot Sterling.
Alton Sterling (Facebook)
The video comes on the heels of a citizen video showing the actual shooting by police (warning: graphic content).
In the eyewitness video, Muflahi says that he saw the police trying to get Sterling on top of a car. He said the police slammed Sterling on top of a car, and then tasered him. At that point, other cops ran and tackled him, the eyewitness said. Then, they were on the ground, with Sterling on his back. Sterling was still able to move.
“I did not see him” reach for his gun, Muflahi said. His hand was on his side “with no gun in his hand,” said the eyewitness, in the video. He said the cop “went inside his (Sterling’s) pocket and pulled” a gun out. “From what I saw, they didn’t have to shoot him,” the witness said.
Alton Sterling. (Twitter)
According to the Baton Rouge Advocate, the Baton Rouge police officer shot and killed Sterling on Tuesday outside a convenience store. Officials said there was “some type of altercation” with the officers, the news site reported. Sterling was a registered sex offender. Read more about his life here.
Sterling was shot in front of the Triple S Food Mart in Baton Rouge, said BNO News.
