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Alton Sterling Shooting: Black Lives Matter Activists And Celebrities, Including Jessie Williams, Rashida Jones, And Olivia Wilde, React To The Latest Police Shooting

By Phillip Dengler
Published on: 08:13 PST, Jul 6, 2016

Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black male and father of five from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was shot and killed by police Tuesday outside of a convenience store in Baton Rouge. According to the Huffington Post, store owner Abdullah Muflahi stated that Sterling had sold CDs outside of his store for years, and he knew him well. Muflahi also told reporters that it was only in the past few days that Sterling began to carry a gun.

While details from the shooting are still emerging, activists from Black Lives Matter and numerous celebrities have already taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the shooting and the fact that another black man is dead at the hands of police.

The most notable celebrity and Black Lives Matter activist to speak out may be Jessie Williams, who recently gave a controversial speech at the 2016 BET Awards, where he discussed race and other issues that plague entertainers and people of color. In his tweets, Williams begs his followers to provide evidence on why police had to shoot Sterling.

As the Inquisitr reported, a graphic video of Sterling’s shooting emerged earlier today. The video shows two officers holding Sterling on the ground. While it cannot be seen clearly in the video, it appears as though the officers are attempting to handcuff Sterling. One of the officers yells that Sterling has a gun on him, and the shooting occurs a few moments later. It was later confirmed that Sterling did indeed have a gun on him, but it is currently unknown where the gun was and if he was reaching for it.

As CNN reports, the police were called because an anonymous 911 caller said that a man with a gun was threatening him. It is currently unknown what happened between the anonymous caller and Sterling, but more details should emerge over the next few days.

In addition to Jessie Williams, celebrities such as Rashida Jones, Olivia Wilde, and others also took to Twitter to talk about the shooting.

As he has with similar cases, Bernie Sanders also tweeted that a DOJ investigation should be completed.

According to NBC News, the DOJ will indeed investigate the shooting.

“The U.S. Department of Justice will lead a civil rights investigation into the death of a black man shot multiple times by police during a confrontation at a Louisiana convenience store. His death has sparked protests against police brutality in Baton Rouge, and family members and the local NAACP branch called for an independent review outside of the city’s police department. Gov. Edwards, a Democrat, said the investigation into the use of unreasonable or excessive force will be assisted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI in the state.”

As they have done with similar police shootings, most notably the shooting death of Michael Brown, activists from Black Lives Matter have also taken to Twitter to plead for change regarding how police treat people of color.

One of the biggest things that activists from Black Lives Matter have been calling for recently is the use of body cameras by police. While both officers were apparently wearing body cameras, it is being reported that they fell off early in the struggle with Sterling. Fox News notes that while the cameras did not provide a close view of the shooting, they remained on the entire time and the audio could be valuable to the investigation.

The investigation into the shooting death of Alton Sterling by police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is going to continue to pick up steam over the next few weeks and months. Since it is still in its early stages, investigators will attempt to interview more witness around the scene that may have seen what transpired. They will also view the dashboard cameras and surveillance cameras from the convenience store where the shooting occurred.

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