Chief apologizes over Sterling shooting

A Louisiana police chief apologized Thursday to his city and to the family of a black man shot and killed by a former police officer in 2016, saying the officer should have never been hired.
During a news conference, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul and a police lawyer detailed repeated problems with Officer Blane Salamoni that they said should have raised red flags long before Alton Sterling was shot and killed.
Paul was not the chief during the shooting, which launched days of protests over police treatment of black people.
In particular, the lawyer, Lee Hamilton, said Salamoni had been arrested for a physical altercation prior to joining the police department, which normally would have prevented him from being hired. He also failed to disclose his arrest in his application, Hamilton said.
The chief said the Sterling shooting was part of a well-documented pattern of “unprofessional behavior, police violence, marginalization, polarization and implicit bias by a man who should have never ever wore this uniform.”
“I want to apologize to the family of Alton Sterling and also to his kids. We’re sorry because he (Salamoni) should’ve never been hired,” Paul said.
Salamoni and officer Howie Lake II encountered Sterling after responding to a report of a man with a gun outside the Triple S Food Mart.
Federal authorities, who opened a civil rights investigation immediately after the shooting, said Salamoni yelled that 37-year-old Sterling was reaching for a gun in his pocket before shooting him. The officers recovered a loaded revolver from Sterling’s pocket.
Lake helped wrestle Sterling to the ground, but didn’t fire his gun.
The shooting death came at a time of intense scrutiny across the country over the treatment of black people by police.
Two cellphone videos of the shooting quickly spread on social media, leading to nightly protests.
Many of the protesters complained about historic tensions between Baton Rouge police and the city’s African American residents. The police chief addressed those concerns Thursday, acknowledging past problems with law enforcement behavior.
“While we obviously cannot change the past, it is clear that we must change the future. And I sincerely apologize for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in building barriers in communities of color in the city of Baton Rouge,” Paul said.
Both state and federal officials declined to prosecute the officers, but Salamoni was fired in March 2018.
He appealed and under a settlement announced Thursday, he’ll be allowed to voluntarily resign retroactive to March 2018 instead of being fired. He will not receive any compensation, Hamilton said. And Paul emphasized that he’ll never police city streets again.
Hamilton listed numerous problems discovered about Salamoni during the investigation. Hamilton said Salamoni regularly used profanity and unnecessary force during his work.
He even had problems with other officers. In one instance, Hamilton said Salamoni had a “blow up” with another officer that was so troublesome it caused another officer to say that if something wasn’t done about Salamoni, he could “eventually kill someone.”
“What became apparent from all the evidence presented to the chief was that Mr. Salomoni had a propensity for acting outside of the standards established by the BRPD for command of temper and use of force,” Hamilton said.