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| Police Officer Blane Salamoni |
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
The trigger-happy Baton Rouge police
officer that killed a subdued black man, Alton Sterling, has been
identified.
Officer Blane Michael Salamoni, 28, has
been a police officer for four years. He was caught on cell phone video shooting
and killing Alton Sterling early Tuesday morning. Salamoni, a third
generation law enforcement officer, is the officer without the hat in
the deadly cell phone video.
The video shows Salamoni yelling at
Sterling to stop moving before pressing a handgun into the
37-year-old’s chest and pulling the trigger. About six shots are
heard in the clips, and though neither video clearly shows Salamoni
firing all of the shots, the Baton Rouge Police Department has said
only one officer killed Sterling. Salamoni is heard crying “F***!”
after the shooting ...
Officer Blane Salamoni has a history of
abuse. He had a complaint sustained against him, for which he
received a letter of caution in an automobile crash in June 2012. He
was accused of improperly carrying out orders in a vehicle pursuit in
July 2015 and using force on August 2015 in hurting someone he was
trying to arrest. Both of the latter incidents were found “not
sustained” records show.
The other officer seen in the cell
phone videos has been identified as Officer Howie Lake II, a
three-year veteran of the force. While the Baton Rouge Police
Department has identified the two officers, they have remained silent
about the actual firing of weapons.
Officer Howie Lake II also has a history of abuse. He had a use of force complaint lodged against him
in April 2014, for injuring a 15-year-old boy while trying to arrest
him. In another incident in December of that year, Lake was accused
of using force after responding to an incident in which another
officer fired at an armed man, striking the man. Records show Lake
was “exonerated” of both complaints.
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