Trigger-Happy Baton Rouge Cop Identified: Blane Salamoni Killed Alton Sterling

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.