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Background of Alton Sterling and BRPD officers - Everything we know

7 years 8 months 3 weeks ago Thursday, July 07 2016 Jul 7, 2016 July 07, 2016 12:20 PM July 07, 2016 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - One man is dead after an officer-involved shooting in Baton Rouge Tuesday morning. Video of the shooting sparked a wildfire of public outcry from around the nation. Here is everything we know about the background of each of the men involved in the shooting:

Alton Sterling

Alton Sterling has been described as by the mother of his oldest child, Quinyetta McMillon, as "a man who was simply trying to earn a living to take care of his children."

McMillon was extremely emotional at a Wednesday morning press conference held outside City Hall where Sterling's family, family's attorney, community activists and leaders were present.

"He was killed without regard of the lives that he helped raise," McMillan said.

Cameron Sterling, Alton and McMillon's 15-year-old son, was also present at the conference and broke down in sobs while his mother spoke.

Abdul Muflahi, the store owner who witnessed the shooting, told WBRZ that Sterling sold CD's and DVD's in front of the store for years.

"He was a very happy guy. Always smiling, always laughing, joking around, he loved life," Muflahi said.  

Sterling had a long, but not largely violent, criminal record. He was living in a halfway house, Living Waters, when he died.

In 2000, Sterling was convicted of carnal knowledge of a juvenile from an incident when he was about 20. He also pleaded guilty to the illegal carrying of a weapon with drugs in 2011. He was originally arrested on charges of resisting arrest, marijuana possession, receiving stolen items, possession of a stolen firearm, illegal carrying of a weapon with drugs and sound reproduction without consent.

Sterling was sentenced to five years in prison.

In 2015, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office got an arrest warrant after he allegedly failed to notifiy authorities of an address change, which is required for sex offenders.

Howie Lake

In December 2014, Lake was one of six officers involved in the shooting of Kevin Knight on a domestic disturbance call, Internal Affairs records show. Lake said he fired his gun six or seven times after Knight shot at police. Knight survived the shooting and is set for trial next month. Lake was cleared of wrongdoing. 

Lake had a second use of force complaint filed in April 2014. Details of that incident have not been released at the time of this post, but he was also cleared of wrongdoing.

Blane Salamoni

On June 17, 2015, Salamoni got into a vehicle pursuit in the 6500 block of Airline Highway.

Ver Crawford had allegedly pushed his father out of the moving vehicle and fled when police arrived. A Taser was used on Crawford and he had injuries after his arrest.

In August of 2015, BRPD investigated a use-of-force complaint after Salamoni had an altercation with a man that required the man to get stitches.

On Aug. 5, a man allegedly tried to take Salamoni's Taser during an arrest. The man required stiches to close a head wound afterward. Investigators reported that the man appeared to be drunk at the time.

According to BRPD's  Internal Affairs officer history, Salamoni was cautioned in 2012 for damaging a police car in a "preventable crash." 






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