BATON ROUGE, LA—Following the Louisiana Attorney General’s conclusion that the victim’s shooting death at the hands of police was justified, law enforcement officials questioned Tuesday why Alton Sterling had even been black in the first place. “The fact is that Mr. Sterling clearly knew exactly what he was doing when he decided to go out being black that night,” said Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry, noting that bystander video proved 37-year-old Sterling was “very clearly black” upon exiting the convenience store and persisted in his blackness while being held down by officers and shot three times in the chest; when he continued being black, officers shot Sterling three more times in the back. “Look, statistically speaking, no one in their right mind has a reasonable expectation to be black like that and not find trouble with law enforcement. Our officers merely responded in the fashion they were taught, trained, and socialized to do, namely pinning the black man down and shooting him several times.” Landry added that new community-building programs would hopefully bridge the gap between law enforcement and the misguided crowds that still believe they can uneventfully go out at night while black.

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