So, Alton Sterling Was The Wrong Guy? Store Owner Says Police Took Surveillance Video Without Warrant And Against His Permission

Reportedly, Alton Sterling may have been the wrong guy altogether. The store owner gives his account of the shooting.

After the Alton Sterling shooting, the Triple S Food Mart store owner came forth with his anguish regarding the Baton Rouge police officers’ actions.

According to The Daily Beast, Abdullah Muflahti, the store’s owner, called Sterling his friend. He wasn’t the enemy officers painted him to be.

In fact, as the store owner elaborates, Alton Sterling was the wrong guy.

Earlier, there had been a 911 call placed by an unnamed man. He claimed that a man was brandishing a gun and taunting customers within the parking lot.

However, the store owner said that he had not seen anyone at all waving a gun in the store’s parking lot, and it especially wasn’t Alton.

#AltonSterling and his family. pic.twitter.com/ycLxGu8I9q

— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) July 6, 2016

According to the owner, Sterling had only been doing what he normally does at the establishment — selling his CDs.

As you know, a second video has surfaced regarding the Alton Sterling shooting. Well, it was the store owner who recorded the second angle.

https://youtu.be/DARXLjToqnE

The Daily Beast notes that Muflahti walked out to tell the officers that there had been no altercation or trouble at the store. However, police took action on Sterling anyway.

You could see in the original video where the Baton Rouge police officers tasered and tackled Sterling.

That’s where the store owner mentions he took out his phone to record the shooting as well — after he advised the police that Alton Sterling was the wrong guy, and furthermore that there was no “guy” at all.

But “he was reaching for his gun,” right?

According to reports, Alton Sterling was still being tasered while on the ground. While being tasered, most people’s bodies go into involuntary convulsions. How could Sterling obey the “don’t move” command if they were still tasering him?

A recent report from the University of Georgia states that tasers are quite deadly. In the report, it notes as follows.

“…tasers inflict jolting electrical shocks on the victim, who screams with unbearable pain, collapses, goes into convulsions and writhes on the ground while the officer watches…”

The report also mentioned that between 2011 and 2013, 179 people were killed by cops via taser (but we didn’t hear about those cases, did we?).

Turns out #AltonSterling wasn't even the guy who 911 call was about according to the store owner via @thedailybeast pic.twitter.com/la7fmdYNoY

— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) July 6, 2016

Concerning the Baton Rouge man, the owner mentions that Alton Sterling wasn’t the type of person to threaten people in that way.

Likewise, he says that if Alton had pulled out his gun, it would’ve been for a very big problem.

After the Alton Sterling shooting, everyone who had been seen recording the incident was taken to Baton Rouge Police Department for interviews.

During the store owner’s interview, police requested the surveillance video from the store. However, Muflahti refused to give it to them, says the source.

First, Muflahti told them that they would have to give him a warrant in order to confiscate the Alton Sterling video footage.

Yet — again, disregarding total protocol — Baton Rouge police officers went over the store owner’s head and confiscated the facility’s video footage without a warrant.

According to the source, the store owner says that police told him that they didn’t want him to see the video.

Why?

Something is happening in America. People can choose to look the other way or choose to see the situation for what it is in reality.

However, the United States’ Justice Department has some serious flaws which are continually revealing themselves.

What are your thoughts about the Alton Sterling shooting? Why are officers keeping to the “shoot first, ask questions later” custom — as mentioned by retired officer Frank Serpico to New York Daily News — when it comes to “Black America”? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

[Photo by Gerald Herbert/Arthur Reed/AP Images]