The killing of two black men in different parts of the US has sparked outrage across the United States and re-igniting a debate about police brutality against black people in the country. Here’s a brief timeline of the events this week:
- Louisiana police shoot and kill a black man identified as 37-year-old Alton Sterling, who used to sell CDs outside a convenience store on Tuesday. The police were responding to a call in which the caller said that said they had been threatened by a man with a gun.
- After Sterling remained standing after being ordered to lie on the ground, the officers wrestled him onto the roof of a car and then to the ground. While he was pinned down by the officers, one pulled a gun and shot him four times at close range.
- A day after the shooting of Alton Sterling, a video emerges of a similar incident in Minnesota in which 32-year-old Philando Castile is shot multiple times by a police official after being pulled over for a broken taillight on his car.
- His girlfriend, who was in the car with him and his four-year-old daughter, livestreamed the shooting and it was viewed by over 1.7 million on Facebook. She said that Castile had a legal license to carry a firearm and was reaching for his license and vehicle registration when police shot him. (warning: video has graphic content)
- Minnesota’s governor asks the White House on Thursday to launch a federal probe into the shooting of Castile
- President Barack Obama on Thursday condoles Castile’s family and said that police departments across the country should reform.
- “This is not just a black issue. It’s not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we should all care about…All fair minded people should be concerned,” Obama said.
- “It’s incumbent on all of us to say we can do better than this. We are better than this,” he said,
- Thousands march and chant slogans across the US to protest the killing. Protests are held in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Dallas and Atlanta on Thursday evening, with over 1,000 protesters gathering in New York’s Time Square and many being arrested.
- The protest in Dallas claims five lives with the Dallas Police Department Police Chief saying that at least two snipers from elevated positions shot at police officials who were monitoring the rally.
- Reports say that three shooters are reportedly in custody and one of them shot himself dead. The suspects also placed suspicious packages across the city that were checked by the city’s bomb squad.