BATON ROUGE - A federal lawsuit accuses a Louisiana city official of violating the free-speech rights of black community leaders who were removed from a city council meeting when they tried to talk about a black man's fatal shooting.

  

The lawsuit filed Monday says Baton Rouge Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wilson ordered police to remove several audience members who tried to speak at a Metro Council meeting about the shooting death of Alton Sterling.

  

Baton Rouge NAACP president Michael McClanahan is one of three plaintiffs suing Wilson and the city of Baton Rouge over their removal from the May 10 meeting.

  

A white Baton Rouge police officer shot and killed the 37-year-old Sterling outside a convenience store in July 2016. Police arrested nearly 200 people at protests after the shooting.