The Baton Rouge Chapter of the NAACP will gather tonight on the steps of City Hall for a 7:30 p.m. press conference to once again call for the firing of Baton Rouge police officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II.
The officers—both white—were involved the 2016 fatal shooting of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, outside the Triple S Food Mart, a North Foster Drive convenience store.
The local NAACP chapter, in a statement, says it will also demand the release of any 911 dispatch video and audio related to the shooting and intends to release a civic engagement strategy that “aligns concerned citizens with lawmakers.”
Details of the strategy were not released, and chapter President Michael McClanahan could not be reached for comment before this morning’s Daily Report AM publication deadline.
Sterling was shot and killed on July 5, 2016, after Salamoni and Lake engaged him outside the Triple S Food Mart where he was selling CDs. The officers were responding a call about a man waving a gun.
Salamoni fired the shots that killed Sterling during the exchange that lasted less than 90 seconds, said the U.S. Justice Department, which declined to charge the officers with a federal crime. Bystanders captured the encounter on cell phone videos that would go viral online and spark protests in Baton Rouge.
The Justice Department turned its files over to the office of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, which is investigating the matter to determine if the officers should face state criminal charges, last May.
Landry’s office has been silent about its probe so far. However, local enforcement agencies met last Friday to prepare for the office’s pending announcement on whether it will charge the officers, according to news reports.
The local NAACP chapter, meanwhile, is asking citizens to contact elected officials and demand the speedy release of police video and 911 audio from the night of the Sterling shooting. Federal and state law enforcement officials have been unwilling to turn over video and audio related to the incident until after all investigations are completed.
