Kaepernick Post Triggers Emotional Debate Over Louisiana Shooting
SANTA CLARA (CBS SF) – San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick ignited frenzied comments on Instagram Wednesday with his views on the videotaped police killing of a black man in Louisiana.
Kaepernick posted the video on his Instragram account saying "this is what lynchings look like in 2016! Another murder in the streets because the color of a man's skin, at the hands of the people who they say will protect us. When will they be held accountable?"
The response was immediate and at times heated. (Editors Note: Video contains graphic scenes from shooting)
The U.S. Justice Department opened a federal civil rights investigation of the killing on Wednesday.
The announcement came a day after the killing of 37-year-old Alton Sterling, who authorities say was confronted by police after an anonymous caller said he had threatened someone with a gun outside the store where he was selling homemade CDs.
In a cellphone video taken by a community activist, two officers had Sterling pinned to the ground, and gunfire erupted moments after someone yelled, "He's got a gun! Gun!" Baton Rouge police have not said whether Sterling in fact had a gun.
"I have very serious concerns. The video is disturbing, to say the least," Gov. John Bel Edwards said in announcing that the Justice Deparment's Civil Rights Division would lead the investigation.
The shooting fueled anger and protests in Baton Rouge, with community leaders and Sterling's family demanding a federal investigation and the firing of the police chief.
"Mr. Sterling was not reaching for a weapon. He looks like a man that was actually fighting for his life," said state Rep. Edmond Jordan, an attorney for Sterling's family.
Authorities have not released the race of the two officers, who have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard department procedure.
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