Man slain on Byron Ave.

• By KIMBERLY VETTER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 24, 2009 - Page: 1B

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For the third time in five weeks someone has been shot to death on Byron Avenue in or near the Brookstown area.

The latest killing occurred about 2:15 p.m. Thursday in the 4300 block of Byron Avenue near Lemonwood Drive, said Sgt. Don Kelly, a spokesman with the Baton Rouge Police Department.

Robert Fitzgerald Sterling, 40, 4935 Sycamore St. — the fifth person killed in the area since June 19 — was shot once in the upper body by a man who fled in an older model blue Oldsmobile Cutlass, Kelly said.

Sterling later died at the LSU Earl K. Long Medical Center.

The shooting might have stemmed from an argument between Sterling and the shooter, Kelly said.

Detectives said they believe a gun found in front of a house at 4342 Byron Ave., where Sterling was found, was in possession of Sterling at the time he was shot. It is not yet known whether the gun was fired.

Judith Smith, who lives in the house, said she was in a front room of her home when the shooting began.

“I heard the shots, I looked out the window and I saw him before he fell,” she said, adding that she didn’t know Sterling personally, but had seen him around the neighborhood. “It’s sad. It’s really sad.”

Horesal Williams, who lives next door to Smith, said Sterling was a friend and was at her house when the argument that allegedly sparked the shooting happened.

Sterling cut her grass, worked on her car and did other jobs around her house, said Williams, who was at work when Sterling was killed.

“This is too much,” she said, shaking her head and looking toward the large oak tree under which Sterling was found. “People don’t value life any more.”

Sterling’s mother, Margaret Sterling, said her son lived with her and that she saw him Thursday morning and talked to him an hour before he was killed.

Margaret Sterling said there was no indication during their phone conversation that anything was wrong.