BATON ROUGE, LA (PPN)- Today marks the 18th month  that Alton Sterling was killed by a Baton Rouge police officer. Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake were the two officers that were present on the scene when Sterling was killed. The two officers have been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.

Blane Salamoni fatally shot and killed Alton Sterling, 37, on July 5, 2016 while Sterling was lying on his back and pinned down by himself and Lake. Both have been in trouble before for their actions while on-duty in the past. Salamoni, 28, is the son of Captain Noel Salamoni -BRPD Special Operations Division. His mother is a retired police captain.

Hillar Moore, EBR District Attorney, chose to recuse himself due to his personal connections with the Salamoni family. The case was escalated to the U.S. Department of Justice and the acting US Attorney General Corey Amundson informed the public that Sterling’s civil rights were not violated.

“Our investigation focused on one question did either Officer Salamoni or Officer Lake violate federal criminal civil right laws or any other federal criminal law in connection with their encounter with Mr. Sterling?” Amundson said.

Amundson went on to say “under this standard, it is not enough to show that the officer acted recklessly or with negligence or  by mistake”.

The  U.S. Department of Justice took 302 days to decide whether charges would be brought forth or not against the officers involved.

The case has now been on the desk of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry for 247 days. Landry has not notified the public on when a decision would be made against the officers that were involved in the shooting.

Many community leaders have speculated that Attorney Jeff Landry will not prosecute the officers and that the case will not be thoroughly investigated mainly because of Landry’s interest in becoming the next Louisiana Governor.

Daniel Banguel Publisher/Public Speaker/ Community Activist