By Sheryl Estrada
Cameron Sterling, age 15, son of Alton Sterling whose police-related death on July 5 in Baton Rouge, La. was caught on cellphone video, spoke about his father and hope for unity during a press conference Wednesday.
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“I feel that people, in general, no matter what the race is, should come together as one united family. There should be no more arguments, disagreements, violence, crimes 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.”
Regarding the demonstrations around the country following the death of his father, Sterling said:
“Yes, you can protest. But I want everyone to protest the right way. Protest in peace.”
In an interview with CBS Newson Wednesday,Cameron said he thinks that “all police aren’t bad.”
“They all aren’t bad,” he said. “There are some that are bad, but all aren’t bad. How I feel I feel all police shouldn’t be punished for other police’s crimes. The police in Dallas, Texas… they didn’t deserve that because, nobody knew if they had kids to go home to. Those kids need their parents.”
Sterling’s family gave a press conference together with Michael McClanahan, president of the local chapter of the NAACP and other community leaders on July 6. As Quinyetta McMillan, Cameron’s mother, addressed reporters, he was visibly overcome with emotion having just lost his father.
“When I put my arm around her, it’s like somebody else’s hand touched me, like I had another hand laying on top of my hand. And when I looked over, was nobody else touching me. Nobody else was touching me. And it was like at that moment I knew: my daddy here — he right on the side of her,” he said. “We’re standing here as a family together once again. That’s when I just started crying… I knew I can’t physically have him back, so I knew I had to cry, just to be like, ‘I want my daddy back.'”
