Walls Project · Today at 7:01am .. At Triple S Food Mart.
http://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/...37&oe=582E9D94http://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/...0a&oe=582D10CE
And so the glorifying of the dead begins
Alton Sterling hustled all his life, trying to scrape together enough money in $5 increments by selling copies of movies, albums and games.
A fixture in front of the Triple S Food Mart, where he was shot by a Baton Rouge police officer early Tuesday, neighbors and friends described the 37-year-old Sterling as a friendly, kind-hearted man who spent nights peddling his wares.
“If you asked Alton for the shirt off his back, he’d give it to you. Alton would give you the world,” Lorna Sterling, an aunt who helped raise him following his mother’s death, said Tuesday evening while standing in the parking lot of the store. “Alton sits out here until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. All he did was sell his CDs and DVDs and go eat.”
A cousin who grew up with Alton Sterling described his upbringing as “a rough childhood” — his mother died in 1986 and he went on to lives with other relatives — but said he’d stayed close with his family and had a sharp sense of humor.
“He always could make you laugh,” said the cousin, Sharida Sterling, who added she thought of Alton as a brother. “You know how when something like this happens people always say good, good, good things? Well, he really was a good person. You won’t hear a bad story from nobody.”
Alton Sterling’s life was punctuated by arrests and jail terms stretching back to 1996, including an encounter with police similar to the one that ended in his death.
In May 2009, he was selling CDs outside a convenience store when a Baton Rouge officer asked if he had any weapons or drugs on him, according to a police report. Sterling didn’t answer, and the officer had him put his hands on the police car, the report said. While being frisked for weapons, Sterling tried to reach into his front left pocket for an unknown item, the officer wrote.
Sterling then tried to run from the officer, who grabbed the back of his shirt and pushed him to the ground. During the struggle, a stolen 9mm semi-automatic pistol fell from Sterling’s waist band, the report said. Officers also found a small plastic bag of suspected marijuana in Sterling’s front left pocket.
Sterling later pleaded guilty in May 2011 to illegal carrying of a weapon with a controlled dangerous substance, and was sentenced to five years in July 2011.
Relatives said most of the crimes Sterling may have committed came while trying to eke out a living.
“He did some time in jail, got out, and came out here selling CDs, trying to make an honest living,” said Sharida Sterling.
After returning home from that prison term, Lorna Sterling said her nephew had resolved to steer clear of trouble and take care of his five children, including a set of twins. She also said his brother died about six months ago.
The owner of the Triple S Food Mart, Abdullah Muflahi, said he’d happily allowed Alton to set up shop outside his building since getting to know him about six years ago.
Cameron Sterling, Alton’s 15-year-old son, broke down in tears at a press conference Wednesday morning outside the Baton Rouge City Hall, turning away from the crowd into the embrace of supporters and shielding his face in a shirt.
His mother — Quinyetta McMillion — said anyone watching the widely circulated cell phone video of Sterling’s death “will see with your own eyes how he was killed unjustly and without regard for the lives he helped raise.”
McMillion, choking back tears herself as she spoke to reporters, said focusing on Sterling’s past mistakes “obscured the image of a man who was simply trying to earn a living to take care of his children.”
Muflahi, who witnessed and filmed the shooting outside his store, said Sterling was occasionally harassed by police officers — an account echoed by several relatives — but said there were never issues.
Robert Crosby, a contractor who did maintenance on Muflahi’s store, said he got to know Sterling at the Triple S and occasionally passed him a bit of cash.
“He’d been working hard for himself, sitting out here in 110 degree heat every day,” Crosby said. “He’d served his time and was trying to do right.”
“I’d never seen him get out of hand with anyone,” said Elvina Scott, who lives nearby and said she’d bought a CD from Sterling a few minutes before the shooting. Scott said Alton told her not to worry about paying the cash that night.
“He said, ‘I’ll get the five dollars from you tomorrow, sister,’” Scott said.
Some criminal convictions continued to haunt Alton Sterling. In a 2000 carnal knowledge of a juvenile case, Sterling pleaded guilty to having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl when he was 20 years old.
The conviction required that Sterling register as a sex offender, something Baton Rouge authorities alleged he’d failed to do in a May arrest warrant. A count of failing to register was pending against him at the time of his death, as were charges of possession of Ecstasy and marijuana
Sterling had been living at a halfway house, where he’d registered. But a probation officer who checked on him in August was told by the center manager that Sterling hadn’t lived there for two weeks. He’d also spent time living with aunts and other relatives, they said.
Vereta Lee, an East Baton Rouge school board member who said she’s known the Sterling family for years, described Alton Sterling as “a very nice, kind fellow” trying his best to provide for his family and stay out of trouble, given a tough set of circumstances — a job that kept him outside in an often rough neighborhood until late in the night.
“He wasn’t making much but enough to try to feed himself,” Lee said.
http://theadvocate.com/news/16328356...-he-was-killed
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...trying to make an honest living,”...
selling illegal bootleg DVD's & CDs....
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... “He’d been working hard for himself, sitting out here in 110 degree heat every day”...
But the shooting was at 2:30 AM and he was usually there - according to all other accounts - late at night and early hours of the morning.
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... a job that kept him outside in an often rough neighborhood until late in the night....
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The owner of the Triple S Food Mart, Abdullah Muflahi, said he’d happily allowed Alton to set up shop outside his building since getting to know him about six years ago.
Considering his store is "Ground Zero" if the protests turn out like Baltimore or Detroit.... he can't say much else.
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...said Sterling was occasionally harassed by police officers...
He was arrested, tried, and convicted on multiple counts of violent behavior, and on drug charges. If you are a "habitual offender" who keeps getting caught... I don't think that is "harassment"
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Sterling had been living at a halfway house, where he’d registered. But a probation officer who checked on him in August was told by the center manager that Sterling hadn’t lived there for two weeks.
He was not staying at the House - where you have to remain alcohol and drug free - for almost a year. Had not reported to his probation officer nor registered as a sex offender as required. Had as recently as three weeks ago been arrested with drugs in his pockets... same as the night he was killed.
The police didn't roll up to "harass" Sterling - they were called out because a man matching his description was waving his gun around threating to shoot someone in a disagreement.
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“He wasn’t making much but enough to try to feed himself,” Lee said.
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“will see with your own eyes how he was killed unjustly and without regard for the lives he helped raise.”
McMillion, choking back tears herself as she spoke to reporters, said focusing on Sterling’s past mistakes “obscured the image of a man who was simply trying to earn a living to take care of his children.”
They contradict themselves in the same article....
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Cameron Sterling, Alton’s 15-year-old son, broke down in tears at a press conference Wednesday morning outside the Baton Rouge City Hall, turning away from the crowd into the embrace of supporters and shielding his face in a shirt.
This was really cruel - whom ever thought this was a good idea was looking for a dramatic "moment" and not thinking about the kid AT ALL.