Doug Stanglin

USA TODAY

With questions and anger bubbling up nationwide, the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights division took over the investigation Wednesday of a fatal shooting — captured on at least two graphic videos — of a black man by two Baton Rouge, La., police officers.

The move came only hours after leaders of the city's black community joined family members of the victim, Alton Sterling, 37, at a news conference to call for more protests and for the inquiry to be turned over to state and federal authorities.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who announced the federal involvement at a news conference, said he had "serious concerns" about the shooting based information from police and the video of the shooting that took place outside of a convenience store. "The video is disturbing, to say the least," Edwards said.

Edwards told reporters that the inquiry, originally in the hands of local police, would be handled "impartially, professionally and thoroughly." He said the agency's civil rights division would be in charge of the probe, assisted by the FBI and Louisiana State Police.

A second video surfaced late Wednesday that appears to show the incident in the parking lot of a convenience store, The Daily Beast reported. The media outlet said the store owner, Abdul Muflahi, provided the new video and reported it does not appear to support the claim that Sterling's supposed gun represented an active threat to the officers. Seconds after the shooting, one of the officers is seen removing an object from Sterling's right pants pocket.

Officers identified

Edwards called on the Baton Rouge community and faith-based leaders "to work with all of us that we remain calm and peaceful as the details unfold." He also said he had spoken with Sterling's aunt, Sandra Sterling, to express his condolences.

Sandra Sterling had joined community leaders in front of city hall earlier Wednesday to call her nephew's shooting a "horrible thing." "He didn’t deserve that," she said.

The developments prompted one national civil rights organization to reiterate its call for better safeguards against alleged police wrongdoing. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund on Wednesday underscored a previous call for, among other thingws, annual collection and public reporting of arrests, use of force and traffic stop data, training on implicit bias, adolescent development and appropriate interactions with people suffering from mental illness and other disabilities.

"Mr. Sterling's death is horrific to witness and follows an increasingly long line of unjustified police shootings of civilians," said Sherillyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the LDF. "We send our sincere condolences to his family, and join the call for a transparent investigation of the shooting, including the release of any surveillance, dash-cam, or police body-worn camera video."

At a news conference Wednesday, Baton Rouge police chief Carl Dabadie called the fatal shooting a "horrible tragedy." He identified the officers involved as Blane Salamoni, a four-year member of the department and Howie Lake II, who has been on the force for three years.

He did not identify their race, but said they have have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Lake was placed on administrative leave once before, in 2014, along with five other officers, as a result of a police-involved shooting, WAFB-TV reported. The incident involved a suspect who crashed his car while trying to elude officers. The suspect then began shooting at officers, who returned fire, hitting him multiple times but not killing him.

Dabadie also called on any groups planning to gather to express their concerns over the incident to "do it peacefully, that no one gets hurt or injured."

The Justice Department’s investigation will look into whether the officers willfully violated Sterling’s civil rights through the use of unreasonable or excessive force, the Associated Press reported. Similar investigations, which often take many months to resolve, were opened following the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York.

Federal investigators must meet a high legal burden to bring a civil rights prosecution, establishing that an officer knowingly used unreasonable force under the circumstances and did not simply make a mistake or use poor judgment, AP reported. Many federal probes conclude without criminal charges.

Protests erupt after first video published

The shooting occurred after the officers arrived at the Triple S Food Mart about 12:35 a.m. Tuesday. they were responding to an anonymous caller who indicated that a man, later identified as Sterling, was selling music CDs and wearing a red shirt threatened him with a gun, Cpl. L’Jean McKneely said.

Mufleh Alatiyat, a 25-year-old employee of the store described Sterling as generous and said he often gave away CDs or petty cash or bought food or drink for some people. “He was a very nice guy,” he said. “He helped a lot of people.”

Protests erupted late Tuesday and continued into the early morning hours following the appearance on Facebook of a graphic video purportedly showing the shooting.

Shooting in Baton Rouge: What we know

That 48-second cellphone video captured by a bystander shows an officer firing at least one round into Sterling's chest followed by the sound of at least four shots as the camera abruptly turns away.

"Get on the ground, get on the ground!" one officer shouts at the outset of the video clip.

One officer pulls down and pins the man's left arm. His right arm is not visible in the video.

"He's got a gun! Gun," one officer says, prompting the officer visible in the video to draw his weapon and point it at the man's chest. That action is followed by a flash from the gun.

Warning: This graphic video uploaded to YouTube purportedly shows the shooting

An autopsy shows Sterling died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back, according to East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William "Beau" Clark.

Muflahi told WAFB-TV that the first officer used a stun gun on Sterling and the second officer tackled the man. Muflahi said as Sterling fought to get the officer off him, the first officer shot him “four to six times.”

He says Sterling did not have a gun in his hand at the time but he saw officers remove a gun from Sterling’s pocket after the shooting. Police confiscated a video of the incident taken by the store's surveillance cameras.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar C. Moore III on Wednesday said he and his staff watched interviews of the two officers with internal investigators. He said the two officers "feel they were completely justified” in shooting Sterling, the Advocate reported.

Emotional loved ones of Alton Sterling demand justice

Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., called for the Department of Justice to investigate the killing. He said officials claimed that both officers had body cameras "but they fell off during the struggle and do not show the shooting."

By dawn Wednesday, protesters and friends had created a makeshift memorial to Sterling on the white folding tables and fold-out chair he used to sell homemade music compilations on CD’s.

The protests increased after the video surfaced, with demonstrators chanting, "hands up, don't shoot" and "black lives matter."

Demonstrators blocked the intersection near the convenience store before 10 p.m. CT Tuesday night. They eventually cleared the streets and moved to the sidewalks.

NAACP calls for firing of police chief

Michael McClanahan, president of the Baton Rouge NAACP, called on the mayor to fire the chief of police and then resign himself. He also called for the probe into the killing to be handed over the the Louisiana State Police.

"The best way to insure that this is no cover up is to turn it over to a neutral third party," McClanahan said.

He said the community's goal was to "root out the 1% of the bad police who believe they are the judge, jury and executioner of innocent people, period, but most of all black lives."

McClanahan called on the Baton Rouge police to arrest the two officers. "If the system works for anyone, it should work for them, too," he said.

Gary Chambers, publisher of The Rouge Collection, which serves the predominantly black community of north Baton Rouge, called for a community meeting Wednesday evening of blacks, whites, other ethnics groups and faith-based leaders to "come together as a city and say that this is not going to stand in this community."

"This is not a place of division," Chambers said. "This is not a community place where we are trying to pit all of our community against all police. We understand that not all police are bad, but this must be answered for."

Quinyetta McMillon, mother of the oldest of Sterling's five children, broke down repeatedly as she addressed the news conference, At one point her son, who stood next to hear, broke into sobs and buried his face against her arm, and was gently taken by bystanders.

"The individuals involved in this murder took away a man with children who depended on their daddy on a daily basis," she said.

She said the community had come together "to ensure that this event will not go unnoticed, especially for the future."

"I for one will not rest and will not allow him to be swept into the dirt," she said.