This morning, Alton Sterling's son Cameron called for the public to come together as "one united family" in its mourning and grief over the killing of his father, Alton Sterling, the black man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who was pinned to the ground, shot, and killed by two police officers after selling CDs outside of a convenience store.
The week following Sterling's death has been marked with both mourning and protests across the country calling for police reform. Tensions are still running high after one such protest in Dallas turned deadly when a sniper opened fire onto the crowd, killing five officers. While the younger Sterling understood peoples' desire to speak out in his father's memory, he stressed the importance of protesting peacefully.
"My father was a good man. That was a sacrifice to show everyone what has been going on in life," Cameron said outside the convenience store where his father was shot and killed. "And it should give everyone a push that everyone should be together, not against each other."
Read Cameron Sterling's full speech below:
Good morning, everyone. I came to talk to everyone about one, the death of my father. Two, about how I feel about people in general. First, I want to talk about how I feel about people in general. I feel that people in general, no matter what their race is, should come together as one united family. There should be no more arguments, disagreements, violence, crimes—everyone should come together as one united family.
My father was a good man. That was a sacrifice to show everyone what has been going on in life. And it should give everyone a push that everyone should be together, not against each other. Everyone needs to be on one accord, not a different note. Everyone needs to be together, not apart.
And I truly feel that my father was a good man, and he will always be a good man, but, at the same time, he has a lot of loved ones out here that are really here to support me, my mother, the rest of my brothers and sisters, and my father. They’re here to support everyone. And I want to thank everyone that are supporting us, I want to thank y’all very much for supporting us.
And another thing, the protesters. I feel that everyone, yes, you can protest, but I want everyone to protest the right way. Protest in peace. Not guns, not drugs, not alcohol, not violence. Everyone needs to protest in the right way. With peace. No violence. None whatsoever.