By REBECCA R. RUIZ
May 2, 2017
WASHINGTON — Two white police officers will not face federal charges in the fatal shooting of a black man last year in Baton Rouge, La., which caused widespread unrest. The decision was made while the Trump administration is under scrutiny about how it will handle prosecutions in racially charged police shootings, a priority of the Obama administration.
The decision in the death of Alton B. Sterling was confirmed Tuesday afternoon by two people familiar with it.
Local officials criticized the Justice Department for failing to inform them before the news became public. And Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who inherited the Baton Rouge case, is certain to face further attention over how he proceeds in the fatal shooting on Saturday of a 15-year-old black high school student by an officer near Dallas, a case that reignited debate over police-community relations. The officer was fired on Tuesday. [Page A11.]
Even the Obama administration saw challenges in bringing charges in Mr. Sterling’s case. The bar for charging police officers with federal civil rights violations is extremely high, and prosecutions are rare. The Obama administration, which cultivated an aggressive reputation on such cases, declined to prosecute officers in several high-profile killings, most notably the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
Mr. Sterling’s death on July 5 was captured on video, as was another fatal shooting of a black man, Philando Castile, by white officers in Minnesota the next day, stoking a debate about race and criminal justice that intensified when a sniper gunned down police officers, killing five, at a demonstration in Dallas on July 7.
A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment on Tuesday, but the mayor-president of Baton Rouge, Sharon Weston Broome, expressed outrage that neither she nor Mr. Sterling’s family had been told of the decision not to charge the officers before it was made public in a Washington Post report.
“No one in my office or the governor’s office has been notified by the U.S. attorney’s office of a decision or timeline,” Ms. Broome said in a statement. “When I know something, the people of Baton Rouge will know — and we will get through it together.”
About two weeks after Mr. Sterling’s death, an armed man attacked police officers in Baton Rouge, killing three and wounding three others.
In a Twitter post on Tuesday night, the Louisiana attorney general, Jeff Landry, said his office still had not been notified of the Justice Department’s decision. “Our office will not comment until that time,” Mr. Landry wrote.
A spokeswoman for the Baton Rouge Police Department declined to comment and would not confirm the employment status of the two officers who had been under investigation, referring inquiries to the Justice Department. Neither of the officers, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, responded to phone messages. Both were placed on administrative leave last year.
“The family of Alton Sterling has not been informed by the Department of Justice of any decision or announcement,” L. Chris Stewart and Justin Bamberg, lawyers for Mr. Sterling’s family, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We have been promised that we will meet in person with D.O.J. before any announcement is made.”
Early on July 5, 2016, Officers Salamoni and Lake were responding to a call to the police that a black man in a red shirt selling music CDs outside the Triple S Food Mart in Baton Rouge had threatened the caller with a gun.
In a cellphone video, an officer is seen pushing Mr. Sterling onto the hood of the car and tackling him. He was held to the ground by the officers as one appeared to hold a gun above his chest.
Mr. Sterling had a long criminal history, including convictions for battery and illegal possession of a gun, though it was not clear whether the officers knew that at the time.
Outside the Triple S Food Mart on Tuesday evening, people congregated around the parking lot where Mr. Sterling was shot in the same way they did last summer. Mr. Sterling’s face is painted near the entrance, with a group of stuffed animals in front. There are signs advertising specials on cigarettes and fried chicken, and a sign that reads, “Stop the Killing.”
“I’m not surprised, because it happens all the time,” said Kosher Weber, 21, an African-American resident of Baton Rouge, her voice rising and cracking in anger. “Where do things go from here? There’s no justice. There’s no nothing.”
“Over and over again,” said Derrick Brody, 45, who co-owns a home remodeling company. “They kill a human being and they get away with it, just ’cause they got a blue suit.”
Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California, said that Mr. Sterling had been “shot in cold blood,” and wrote on Twitter, “The DOJ’s decision not to pursue justice is a travesty.”
In his first months as attorney general, Mr. Sessions has ordered a broad review of federal agreements with law enforcement agencies, saying that “the individual misdeeds of bad actors should not impugn” entire departments.
His predecessor, Loretta E. Lynch, released a report in August that illustrated a systemic pattern of discrimination by Baltimore’s police department, which had disproportionately stopped and searched black residents. And last summer, President Barack Obama denounced “the racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system,” while emphasizing that his comments were not an attack on law enforcement itself.
At a confirmation hearing in January, Mr. Sessions expounded on his opposing views, suggesting that civil rights investigations inhibited the police in carrying out their duties.
“Law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly maligned and blamed for the actions of a few bad actors and for allegations about police that were not true,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Morale has suffered,” he added, noting that in the face of public criticism, more police officers had died on the job. “This is a wake-up call. This must not continue.”
The Justice Department must still decide whether to bring charges in other major cases, including the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland. Officials have said that case poses challenges because the boy was holding a toy gun.
Ms. Lynch authorized prosecutors last year to seek charges in the death of Eric Garner, who died after being placed in a chokehold by a New York police officer. Civil rights prosecutors have been presenting evidence before a grand jury in that case. The officer has said his use of force was justified.
Earlier on Tuesday, an officer in South Carolina, Michael T. Slager — charged by the Justice Department in the fatal shooting of a black man, Walter L. Scott — pleaded guilty to a single count of using excessive force to deprive Mr. Scott of his civil rights, under a plea deal in which federal and state officials will not pursue other charges against him.
Mr. Slager — fired from the North Charleston police force after he shot Mr. Scott, who was unarmed and fleeing, in April 2015 — could be sentenced to life in prison after acknowledging that he used deadly force “even though it was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances.”
The Justice Department sought the indictment in South Carolina months before Mr. Sterling died, and its lawyers were preparing for trial this month. On Tuesday, Mr. Sessions said in a news release regarding that plea that his department would “hold accountable any law enforcement officer who violates the civil rights of our citizens by using excessive force.”