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Confirmed: Cops Saw Alton Sterling Reach for Visible Gun

By Officer Blue On July 13, 2016 1

New information has been released in the Alton Sterling case. We previously covered that Alton Sterling’s right hand was not under control of the police officers at the time that he was shot, and officers knew that Sterling had a gun in his right pocket. It was unknown, before now, how the officers knew about the gun. Agitators have speculated that feeling a hard object in Sterling’s pocket would not have been enough for them to recognize it as a gun. They’re wrong, but now we know that the officers actually saw the gun sticking out of Sterling’s pocket, and that he was reaching for it.

CNN reports:

In a search warrant affidavit seeking surveillance video from the store, Detective R. Cook wrote that the Baton Rouge officers deployed their Tasers after Sterling did not comply with their orders.

“While the officers were attempting to subdue the subject the officers observed the butt of a gun in the subject’s front pants pocket,” Cook wrote.

“When the subject attempted to reach for the gun from his pockets the officers fired their police issued duty weapon at the subject to stop the threat. The subject was shot multiple times and did not survive his injuries.”

An armed felon was reaching for his visible gun while resisting arrest. Those circumstances, along with the video evidence, clearly show that officers had no reasonable alternative to shooting Sterling.

Of course, even if there was clear video of Sterling grabbing his gun, Black Lives Matter would still claim that shooting Sterling was unjustified. In the minds of these rocket scientists, no use of deadly force ever appears to be justified. Using deadly force while defending your life is viewed by many as a punitive action, which cannot be completed without due process. This legal mumbo-jumbo is the kind of crazy that’s only spouted by internet lawyers.

All people have a right to protect their lives with whatever force is necessary. These officers were right in the actions that they took to defend their lives. Alton Sterling sealed his own fate the moment he decided to go for his gun.