City council passes $4.5M settlement for Alton Sterling's family, five years after death

February 11, 2021February 11, 2021 WKXA

domnicky/iStockBy ROSA SANCHEZ, ABC News

(BATON ROUGE, La.) — The East Baton Rouge Metro Council in Louisiana voted on a $4.5 million settlement Wednesday for the family of Alton Sterling, a Black man shot and killed by police in 2016.

The council voted 7-4 in favor of offering the settlement to Sterling’s family after they filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the Baton Rouge Police Department.

On Wednesday, Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome tweeted, “I am pleased our metro council was able to find a consensus and approve an offer of settlement in the Alton Sterling civil case. After nearly five years, the people of Baton Rouge are finally one step closer to getting much needed closure in this traumatic episode in our history.”

The news comes after the governing council rejected a proposed $5 million settlement for the family in November 2020. At the time, the 12-member East Baton Rouge Metro Council fell one vote short of the seven needed for approval.

“Now we must continue the work of building a more fair and equitable community, where every citizen is treated justly, no matter their race or ethnicity,” Broome added.

The trial begins March 1.

Sterling, 37, was shot and killed on July 5, 2016, after being confronted by two white police officers outside Baton Rouge’s Triple S Convenience Store following a 911 call about a man selling compact discs in front of the food mart.

Officer Blane Salamoni, who fatally shot Sterling at the scene, was fired from the police department two years after the incident, in 2018.

Sterling’s death prompted protests across the United States over police brutality, four years before George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other people of color were also killed by police.