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Baton Rouge, La. • The revelation that the Justice Department will not bring charges in the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling by police officers here last summer sparked moderate protests overnight — with residents upset both by the decision investigators made and the way their conclusion was broadcast to the world.

A few dozen demonstrators gathered in front of the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters and at the convenience store where Sterling was killed — some chanting "No justice. No peace. No racist police."

Baton Rouge Police said Wednesday morning that they arrested three women around midnight and charged them with various criminal counts, including aggravated obstruction of a highway, battery on a police officer, resisting an officer and illegal carrying of a weapon.

Sgt. L'Jean McKneely of the Baton Rogue Police Department said Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry will still conduct his own criminal investigation into the matter, even after the Justice Department steps away. The district attorney in East Baton Rouge had said last year that he would recuse himself, prompting the Justice Department to fully take over the case, and Landry announced at the time that his office was prepared to act when the federal investigation was completed.

Landry posted on Twitter on Tuesday that because the Justice Department had made no formal announcement, he would not comment.

Police also have been conducting an internal investigation into the shooting, McKneely said. The officers involved — Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake — are on paid administrative leave and will remain that way at least through the conclusion of the state attorney general's probe, McKneely said.

The protests in response to the Justice Department's decision were a far cry from those held in July after Sterling's killing by police. The incident, recorded on video and spread through social media and the news media, triggered large demonstrations. Officers in riot gear stormed massive crowds and arrested nearly 200 people over the course of several days.

Some said they feared tensions would increase in the coming days.

"It's Rodney King 2.0," said Jo Hines, 23, the artist who spray-painted an iconic image of Sterling on the side of the Triple S Food Mart where the shooting occurred. "We just haven't had the riots yet."

A video of the July 5 shooting shows Sterling, 37, lying on his back with two officers on top of him. One of the officers appears to yell, "He's got a gun!" and then shots ring out. A detective wrote in the search warrant affidavit that officers had observed the butt of a gun in Sterling's front pants pocket. At issue in the investigation was whether Sterling was reaching for the weapon, as officers claimed, when he was shot and killed.

The shooting came the day before a police officer in Minnesota shot school cafeteria manager Philando Castile during a traffic stop that was broadcast on Facebook, and in the same week that a black man upset by police and out to kill white people gunned down five officers in Dallas. A little more than a week later, another gunman targeting police shot and killed three officers in Baton Rouge.

The Justice Department had been investigating whether officers violated Sterling's civil rights in the killing, and The Washington Post reported Tuesday evening that prosecutors had come to the conclusion that no officers could be charged.

Local officials had been on edge anticipating a formal announcement, and some said they were angry that the Justice Department had not informed them of the decision before The Post's report. Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said in a statement that she was "appalled" that no one in her office had been notified, nor had anyone in Sterling's family been given a heads up.

As the sun set Tuesday evening, Veda Sterling, Alton Sterling's aunt, told the crowd gathered at the convenience store that the family was "suffering like it was yesterday."

"We need closure. We need a conviction. We need justice," she said.

Tamara Williams, 25, who grew up in the area and knew Sterling, said that she was not surprised at the outcome of the Justice Department investigation but that she still holds out hope that the officers who shot Sterling will face consequences. "I think if the cops aren't terminated — they need to lose their jobs, point blank, period — if that doesn't happen, it's going to get bad."

"Baton Rouge is on a stage right now," she said. "And people are going to see how we react."