Local Community Advertising
***WARNING: this article contains graphic videos. Do not watch the videos if you are not prepared to see shocking, upsetting and gruesome content.***
Note: KelownaNow chose to put the videos in the article as they are central to the story unfolding in the United States. Discretion is advised and readers can choose to not see the footage if they do not want to. The videos contain blacked out covers to avoid accidental viewing.
Two separate officer-involved shootings in which black men were killed are garnering headlines around the world today.
In Baton Rouge, 37-year-old Alton Sterling was shot and killed by police officers outside a convenience store early Tuesday morning. According to the police department, uniformed officers responded to a disturbance call from someone that said a man in a red shirt was selling music cd’s and threatening the complainant with a gun. Video of the situation has prompted outrage as in the footage it shows Stirling on the ground with officers on top of him, then officers shooting him.
“An altercation between Sterling and the officers ensued. Sterling was shot during the altercation and died at the scene. Two BRPD officers have been placed on administrative leave per standard procedure. This is an ongoing investigation,” said police in a statement.
The shooting has prompted outrage and protests and the U.S. department of justice have launched an investigation. The second shooting of a black man has outraged a community in Minnesota as Philando Castile was shot by an officer Wednesday evening.
Castile’s girlfriend Lavish Reynolds took to Facebook to stream the event live to document what just occurred. She was in a vehicle with Castile and her young daughter when they were pulled over for a broken tail light. According to Reynolds, the officer asked Castile for his licence and registration and as he was pulling his wallet out of his back pocket he told the cop he had a gun on him and a permit to carry it. That is when, according to Reynolds, the officer fired several shots at Castile. The shooting proved to be fatal.
The back to back shootings have outraged the country and people around the world, but all the details have yet to come to light. In the Sterling shooting there is speculation that he was trying to grab a gun he had in his pocket, but in the video it does not show that. In the Castile video, it does not show what happened prior to the 32-year-old before he was repeatedly shot.
The department of justice will be investigating both shootings. Many politicians and celebrities have offered support for the victims’ families and express their outrage to the shootings.
Castile and Stirling were the 558th and 559th people shot and killed by police in the United States in 2016.
Local Community Advertising