Security camera of Alton Sterling’s shooting by 2 white cops ‘illegally’ seized by police
Security camera of Alton Sterling’s shooting by 2 white cops ‘illegally’ seized by police
A full recording of the death of the black man being shot by two police officers was taken by his colleagues hours later.
The death of Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, early on Tuesday morning, has already caused controversy after two cameraphone videos emerged showing his final moments.
But Daily Mail Online can disclose that there is a third, comprehensive recording on closed-circuit television of the shooting.
It can also be revealed the recording was not just downloaded by police – but they seized the recording equipment itself without showing a search warrant to the shop owner.
Legal action: Shop owner Adbullah Muflahi (left) and his attorney Joel Porter (right) want the footage returned so it can be made public. It was described to Muflahi by one officer as the ‘best evidence’
Baton Rouge Police Department are now facing legal demands to return the seized equipment to the shop owner, who wants to make it public and whose lawyer accuses the force of ‘spiriting it away’.
The CCTV recording would fill in vital gaps in the sequence of events captured on cell phones.
It is likely the recording is now in the hands of the FBI, who are investigating the shooting by the officers.
The cameras’ owner Abdullah Muflahi said police told him his store security system was the best evidence available to the investigation.
But Muflahi said he was angered that the security surveillance footage was being withheld from public view.
It was taken from his shop by police around 7.30am on Tuesday morning. He had spoken to police for three hours as a witness and given a lengthy statement.
But he told Daily Mail Online that although officers said they had a warrant to take anything relevant to their investigation, they did not show him it – and have not produced one since.
‘I am talking to my lawyer and he is writing to the police that the film should be given to me so I can let the world see it too,’ Muflahi, 28, told Daily Mail Online.
‘They can see how my friend was murdered for nothing. There can be no cover up in this. This camera has got the whole story and the world demands it.
‘They took away the whole system while I was giving them a statement and they wouldn’t let me into my shop.’
It has been reported that the officers and their union representatives are set to claim the shooting was justified.
Sterling was carrying a gun, but it appeared to have been removed after the shooting by an officer.
The two officers involved in the shooting have both been suspended, and the whole department’s actions are now subject to FBI and Department of Justice scrutiny.
Joel Porter, the store keeper’s attorney said: ‘This was an illegal confiscation. The police had no warrant.
‘If there was a warrant issued to enter my client’s premises and take the video, it would have been a matter of record.
‘I have been in touch with the clerk of the court at Baton Rouge and there is no record of the warrant being issued.
‘My client was held in a police car for around three hours and that was illegal too. He was not a suspect.
‘There is a lot that has been done by Baton Rouge Police Department and I am waiting for some answers.’
As he spoke at the scene of the shooting Sterling’s aunt Veda McClister cried loudly saying: ‘I saw my nephew’s blood on this spot and went right down to the drain and the pavement.
‘Right where your knees are right now, that was where his blood was.
‘I am never going to forget what I saw. I will never be myself again.’
She said she was certain that police suspicion of ‘all black people’ led to her nephew’s death.
