66°
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
7 Day Forecast
Follow our weather team on social media

City leaders meet with federal investigators over Alton Sterling case

7 years 8 months 2 weeks ago Monday, July 11 2016 Jul 11, 2016 July 11, 2016 6:58 PM July 11, 2016 in News
Source: WBRZ
By: Mark Armstrong

BATON ROUGE – City leaders met with federal investigators on Monday to talk about how protesters are being treated by law enforcement.

The closed-door meeting took place at the federal court in downtown Baton Rouge.

Hundreds of people were arrested over the weekend as they protested around the city following the police-involved shooting death of 37-year-old Alton Sterling.

Baton Rouge Metro-Councilman Lamont Cole and other African American leaders attended the brief meeting.

"We have some serious concerns of how the citizens of Baton Rouge, the protesters, have been handled during this time," Cole said.

"We're seriously disappointed in their treatment and we just had a discussion about how we're going to move forward," he said.

There was no comment on if leaders were satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.

The meeting comes hours after protesters were arrested in Beauregard Town on Sunday. There has been some controversy after a home owner says police arrested protesters who had permission to be on her lawn. Police were chasing only one protester, but ended up arresting several others.

"If they would have entered my yard to address that one individual that would have been fine, but they came into my yard and addressed everyone who was here and that was inappropriate," the home owner said.

The message from police has been for people to obey the law, or go to jail as they do not want protesters to block traffic.

However, many complaints from leaders say that people are pushed into the street and are being detained.

District Attorney Hillar Moore addressed that concern on Monday at a press conference.

"I have no idea if any of that happened, but I don't think the police need to make anymore arrests or push people to make arrests," Moore said.

Moore announced that he will recuse himself from the case as he has worked with the parents of one of the officers involved the shooting.

As the investigation continues by the Department of Justice, it is unlikely they will comment on the case.

More News

Desktop News

Click to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
Radar
7 Days