St. Louis Police Officer Fatally Shoots Suspected Gunman, Authorities Say

By Kenny Bahr

Scene of latest St Louis police shooting
Scene of lat­est St Louis police shooting

ST LOUIS, Mo. Oct 8 (Reuters) — A white off-duty police­man shot and killed a black teenag­er in St Louis on Wednesday, offi­cers said, trig­ger­ing a night of protests just miles from the site of anoth­er police shoot­ing of anoth­er black youth in the sub­urb of Ferguson. Police said the 18-year-old was armed and fired three shots while he was being chased by the offi­cer, and they had recov­ered a gun at the scene. he youth was killed almost two months to the day since some­times vio­lent protests erupt­ed in Ferguson after a white police offi­cer shot dead unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown.

In Wednesday’s shoot­ing, the dead man was one of three peo­ple who fled after being approached by the offi­cer, a six-year vet­er­an of the depart­ment who was work­ing for a pri­vate secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Sam Dotson said.

The offi­cer, who was wear­ing his city police uni­form, fired 17 shots at the teenag­er, police added.

A crowd of around 200 gath­ered at the scene in the south St. Louis neigh­bor­hood of Shaw, 11 miles (18 km) south of Ferguson. Many of the pro­test­ers marched to a major thor­ough­fare, par­tial­ly block­ing traf­fic and chant­i­ng “Whose streets? Our streets?” as a police heli­copter hov­ered over­head. Teyonna Myers, 23, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch news­pa­per that she was the cousin of the sus­pect and that he was unarmed when he was killed. “He had a sand­wich in his hand, and they thought it was a gun. It’s like Michael Brown all over again,” she told the paper. Police have not named the teenag­er. More here: http://​www​.huff​in​g​ton​post​.com/​2​0​1​4​/​1​0​/​0​8​/​s​t​-​l​o​u​i​s​-​p​o​l​i​c​e​-​s​h​o​o​t​i​n​g​_​n​_​5​9​5​6​5​0​2​.​h​tml