Louisiana won’t charge Baton Rouge officers in Alton Sterling shooting

Two Baton Rouge police officers involved in the 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling will not face charges over the incident, the Louisiana attorney general’s office said Tuesday.

Attorney General Jeff Landry announced the decision not to indict officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, despite video of the event in which Salamoni can be heard yelling “I’ll kill you, bitch” to Sterling moments before the man’s death.

{mosads}Sterling, a black man, was armed with .38 caliber revolver with six rounds in it, according to the Justice Department. The two responding officers, Lake and Salamoni, are white. One had been previously involved in the shooting of another black man two years prior that had led to administrative leave.

Sterling was also tased by officers twice before the shooting occurred, according to the Justice Department, which had already decided not to bring federal civil rights charges against the two or the Baton Rouge Police Department.

“This decision was not taken lightly,” Landry said Tuesday at a press conference, according to news reports.

“I’m asking that everyone consider the family in the coming days, and spend their time and energy in lifting them up rather than creating further division,” he added.

Video from the incident showed officers drawing their guns on Sterling after he removed his hands from the hood of his car, disobeying orders from the officers.

Protests in Baton Rouge sparked by Sterling’s death led to more than 200 arrests in 2016. 

Three Baton Rouge police officers were killed and three others wounded by a lone gunman in the days following Sterling’s slaying.