Tampa pastor apologizes as a white person following Sterling shooting

A Tampa pastor has offered her apology as a white person following the killing of Alton Sterling, a black man gunned down Tuesday, July 5 by Baton Rouge cops.

Pastor Savanna Hartman posted a 10-minute Facebook video message, captioned "My very honest thoughts on ‪#‎AltonSterling and what's happening to the black community right now" in response to the killing. In the video, she expressed her thoughts on the controversial death of 37-year-old Sterling at the hands of white cops.

"Black lives do matter," Hartman uttered the well-known campaign slogan that ensued from a series of African-American shootings by white police.

"And it does not make me a bad person to just say black lives matter," she continued. "They all do. They all do. They all do. Don't change it to all lives matter. Say their lives matter. Their lives matter."

The pastor recited the names of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice or Ms. Sandra Bland and said she could add 40 more names to the list whose deaths are widely believed to be racially motivated. She felt sorry that she didn't speak out sooner.

According to reports, police arrived at a convenience store in Louisiana after a 911 call about an armed man that had threatened the caller with a gun. Video footages showed how the cops pinned down and restrained Sterling, who had been selling CDs and DVDs outside the store, before they shot him close-range.

Hartman acknowledged that not all white people are racist just as not all black people are "thugs," but recognized the fact that white people have contributed to the racial injustice. She urged other white people to apologize as well.

In her spoken word poem, the pastor listed what the black people go through because of their skin and emphasized how she couldn't possibly pretend to know how they feel because although she's not born rich, she lived a privileged life for being born white.

"I'm sorry for how we've behaved starting from the very moment that you were enslaved," said Hartman. "Since we came in our boats and shackled your hands and shipped you back here to work on our land. I am sorry for scars you bore then and bear now because of wounds we have caused or allowed."