The Video of Alton Sterling’s Son Sobbing Over His Father’s Death Will Break Your Heart

(Via CNN)

A person would have to have a heart made of literal stone to not feel for poor, 15-year-old Cameron Sterling, who broke down in uncontrollable tears over the death of his father this week.

Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old Louisiana man who was selling CDs in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was killed by police officers early Tuesday morning. His death was captured on film, and the video is horrific. Of course Cameron has seen it, and that’s terrible. No kid in America should ever be in Cameron Sterling’s position right now.

“He had to watch this, as this was put all over the outlets,” Cameron’s mother, Quinyetta McMillon said to reporters, according to ABC News. “As a mother, I have now been forced to raise a son who is going to remember what happened to his father.”

Cameron Sterling’s grief is palpable. As his mother addresses reporters, the 15-year-old sobs, “Daddy!” His father is dead, and he had to watch video of police officers at close range shooting his father multiple times in the back. How does a kid ever move on and grow up and interact with the world after something like this happens? Unfortunately, it’s a question faced by too many children in the U.S. right now.

Just a day after Alton Sterling’s death, another child was left without a father when another black man was shot by police in Minnesota. Philando Castile’s fiancee, Lavish Reynolds, posted footage of the killing to Facebook. She said she and Castile had their hands in the air, and that Castile was following officer instructions to bring out his license and registration when he was shot by police, right in front of their 4-year-old daughter, who was in the car at the time.

That poor little girl. Castile’s daughter is four, and according to her mother, she saw her father be shot to death right in front of her. A four-year-old is going to remember that, and it’s going to haunt her whole life, as surely as Alton Sterling’s death will haunt Cameron’s. These are unimaginable tragedies, and no kid should ever have to carry a trauma like this with them.