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Politicians comment on deadly officer-involved shooting

8 years 4 months 4 weeks ago Tuesday, July 05 2016 Jul 5, 2016 July 05, 2016 10:08 PM July 05, 2016 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE- Mayoral candidate Sharon Weston Broome became the latest official to comment on a deadly officer-involved shooting when she issued a news release late Tuesday evening.

     > The NAACP called for the mayor and police chief to resign at a news conference on the steps of city hall Wednesday morning; watch coverage here.

Broome said the situation is tragic and disturbing and suggested the chief of the Baton Rouge Police Department comment "immediately."  The highest-ranking officer on the force has yet to make a public remark on the shooting. 

"We must demand justice and the facts and then we must come together to act decisively," Broom said.

Alton Sterling, known as the "CD Man," was shot to death by police outside the Triple-S convenience store on North Foster Drive and Fairfields Avenue early Tuesday morning.

Another candidate for mayor, C. Denise Marcelle, first announced that despite both officers involved being equipped with body cameras, the footage was not able to paint a solid picture of what happened.

"[The chief and I] were in the middle of this discussion, and he said 'well, let me just tell you that it's not much footage.'  And, I said, 'what are you talking about?'  He said, "Well, the body cameras came off in the struggle.'  I thought he meant just one.  I asked about the other officer.  He said, 'both body cameras came off, so it's not much.  It's not great footage from the body cameras,'" Marcelle said quoting her conversation with the police chief.

A police spokesperson countered later, though, the cameras fell from the hooks on the uniform but there is video.  The video has not been released.  An eyewitness, though, shared cell phone video of the shooting with WBRZ.  You can review the footage HERE.

"Our entire community should be concerned about what has occurred," Broome said.  "This incident has to be a lightning rod for change, but not for violence and unrest like we have seen in other cities." 

Protesters gathered at the shooting scene Tuesday evening and promised to remain at the location overnight. 

In a phone conversation with Mayor Kip Holden around 6 p.m. Tuesday, Holden said there will be no cover-up.  Holden assured a full, fair investigation but said he was not going to do on-camera interviews about the shooting.

A police source said there could be a news conference Wednesday morning.

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Follow the publisher of this post on Twitter: @treyschmaltz

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