Police around the state are preparing for a possible attack in Louisiana following the tragic shooting in Dallas that took the lives of five police officers and left seven others wounded. Jeff Palermo has more…
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The funeral for 40-year-old Shannon Labit, who was shot and killed by an Iberia Parish Sheriff’s deputy, is today. Emelie Gunn has more on the case…
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Law enforcement around the state are gearing up for a potential threat in Louisiana following the Dallas attack that left five police officers dead and seven injured. State Police Col. Mike Edmonson says there is concern that something similar could happen in Louisiana because a suspect in the Dallas shooting told police he was upset about the police violence in Baton Rouge and Minnesota.
Edmonson says police have been investigating riot threats that have been made on social media and asks the public to be on the lookout for suspicious activity. He says police are preparing to handle any situation that may arise. He says they will monitor any protests this weekend to protect citizens’ right to protest peacefully.
Edmonson says they are working on race relations between law enforcement and the public. He says in order for people to respect authorities, they have to be able to trust them. He says that starts with transparency and communication.
CUT 5 (06) “individual effort”
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With multiple videos surfacing, many people are wondering was the fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling justified. LSU Criminal Law Professor Ken Levy says no it wasn’t. He says based on the two videos released by bystanders, things aren’t looking good for the two Baton Rouge police officers.
Levy says police did have reason to believe that Sterling was armed, but just having a gun doesn’t give police the right to shoot. He says given the position Sterling was in, officers could not have reasonably believed that he posed a threat to them.
Levy says from watching the videos, he believes a manslaughter charge is warranted here.
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Funeral services are today for 40-year-old Shannon Labit (La-beet) of New Iberia who was fatally shot early Sunday during a standoff with Iberia Parish Sheriff deputies. Labit’s nephew, Jeremy Randazzo, says the lack of specialized training to handle encounters with individuals suffering from mental illness led to his uncle’s unnecessary death.
CUT 9 (10) “different occasion”
State Police is currently conducting the investigation into the shooting. Trooper Brooks David says they know one deputy fired at least one round striking Labit after he approached deputies with a knife. Randazzo says Labit has struggled from paranoid schizophrenia since he was a teenager but would never go up to police with a weapon in his hand. He says the amount of officers that showed up to respond to the stabbing in the area is what caused Labit into a manic episode.
Randazzo says witnesses are coming forward telling his family the incident shouldn’t have gone this way. He says they’re hoping to get the federal government to investigate the shooting.
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Governor John Bel Edwards is urging the public to let the Justice Department take the time it needs to conduct a thorough investigation into the fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling. He says the agency will be professional and transparent during the process and wants everyone to be patient because the investigation may take a while…
The governor says this investigation team is extremely professional and there will be no leaks of information.
Edwards says we’re now going to have a renewed focus on training and retraining police officers. He says new standards of behavior will be developed between law enforcement and citizens.
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