US police shootings of black men deeply troubling: Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama has said the fatal shootings of two black men by police in as many days are not isolated incidents and that all Americans should be deeply troubled. He acknowledged that the US had a serious problem but called for people to come together as a nation. Protests have continued since the shooting of Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Minnesota on Wednesday. It came a day after Alton Sterling was shot dead by police in Louisiana.

The incidents



follow a long line of controversial deaths of African-Americans at the hands of the police that has ignited a national debate about the use of lethal force.

In a statement, President Obama said such fatal shootings were "symptomatic of the broader challenges within the criminal justice system, the racial disparities that appear across the system year after year, and the resulting lack of trust that exists between law enforcement and too many of the communities they serve.