BATON ROUGE -- Four previous "use of force" complaints were lodged against the two white police officers in the video-recorded shooting death of a black man and they were cleared in all of them, according to internal affairs documents released Thursday.
RELATED ARTICLE
http://www.arkansas…">Black-deaths protest turns lethal
The complaints involved three black men and a black youth. One of them was shot when police said he pointed a gun at them, and the others were injured during arrests and a police pursuit in a vehicle.
The documents were released a day after the Justice Department opened a civil-rights investigation into the shooting of Alton Sterling, 37, who was killed by police during an altercation outside a convenience store where he was selling CDs. Police say he was armed, and an eyewitness said he had a gun in his pocket.
Sterling was a convicted felon, which would have barred him from legally carrying a gun, according to court records.
Cellphone video posted online set off protests in Baton Rouge, a city of about 229,000, where 54 percent of the population is black and more than 25 percent live in poverty.
A group of community and faith-based leaders called Together Baton Rouge asked the Justice Department on Thursday to widen the scope of its investigation, saying it should include possible criminal violations such as battery, assault with a deadly weapon, negligent homicide and manslaughter.
"We urge the Justice Department to conduct an investigation beyond just a civil-rights violation because perhaps some other laws, both state and local laws, were violated, and they need to be investigated as well," said the Rev. Lee Wesley, pastor of Community Bible Baptist Church.
Richard Carbo, spokesman for Gov. John Bel Edwards, said the U.S. attorney's office in Baton Rouge is leading the investigation and will look into not only whether civil rights were violated, but also any other violations of state and federal law.
If they find any violation of state laws, the U.S. attorney's office will refer it back to the area district attorney for prosecution.
After meeting with the U.S. attorney's office to get an update on the investigation, the Democrat put out a statement saying: "The people of Baton Rouge and across Louisiana should have no doubt that a thorough and impartial investigation is taking place as we speak."
Similar investigations, which often take many months, were opened after Michael Brown's shooting in Ferguson, Mo., and after Eric Garner's chokehold death in New York City.
Federal investigators must meet a high legal burden to lodge a civil rights prosecution, establishing that an officer knowingly used unreasonable force under the circumstances and did not simply make a mistake or use poor judgment.
Baton Rouge officials said Wednesday that police would conduct an internal investigation but that they would otherwise let federal officials handle the civil-rights inquiry.
"There is also potential -- and I use that word cautiously -- but there is also possible criminal violations," East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said.
Moore didn't return messages Thursday to clarify his remarks, and the Justice Department said it wouldn't comment further because of the ongoing investigation.
At an evening vigil for Sterling, the governor thanked residents for remaining peaceful and promised to make improving law enforcement a priority.
"So now is not only a time to grieve but also talk and, more importantly, to listen to one another," he said.
The officers in the shooting were Blane Salamoni, a four-year member of the department, and Howie Lake II, who has been on the force for three years. Each had two "use of force" complaints.
Lake was involved in a police shooting in December 2014. He told detectives investigating that shooting that he fired six or seven times when a black man refused to drop his gun, then threatened to kill himself and pointed his revolver at officers. The man was wounded by police.
He also injured a combative black youth when they went to the ground during a struggle on April 19, 2014, according to police documents. The youth cut his chin.
Salamoni's complaints involved punching a black man on Aug. 5, 2015, when the man tried to grab the officer's stun gun, according to documents. The man had a cut on his head and needed stitches.
Salamoni was in a vehicle pursuit on June 17, 2015, in which a black man was injured when he crashed into a retaining wall, the documents said. The pursuit began when someone was pushed out of the man's car.
Separately, Salamoni was issued a letter of caution for his involvement in a "preventable crash" on June 13, 2012, in which he damaged department equipment.
Both officers have been placed on administrative leave, standard department procedure.
Information for this article was contributed by Rebecca Santana and Kevin McGill of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/08/2016