St Louis: Police Officer Shoot And Kill Another ' Unarmed' African American Teenager.

AP Photo

AP Photo

AP Photo

A state senator and other black leaders in St. Louis are calling for the Justice Department to investigate the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by an off-duty police officer.

 The shooting occurred in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis, in the southern section of the city near the Missouri Botanical Gardens. 

The officer was working off-duty for a private security firm and he saw three Black males who he said started running away from him. St Louis police chief Sam Dotson said the officer, who was still in uniform, started chasing them.

The shooting victim was identified as Vonderrick Myers Jr., according to Teyonna Myers, 23, who told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he was her cousin.

“He was unarmed,” she told the paper. “He had a sandwich in his hand, and they thought it was a gun. It’s like Michael Brown all over again.”

 

The officer was identified as a 32-year-old, six-year police veteran.

Dotson said one of the teens approached the officer “in an aggressive manner” and refused to stop or surrender.

Dotson said the officer pulled off the teen’s gray-hooded sweater and the young man ran away, grabbing at his waist. Dotson said the officer felt that the teenager was carrying a firearm, but did not open fire because “he wanted to be certain it was a gun.”

But he said the teen turned and “pointed the gun at the officer and fired at least three rounds at the officer.”

Dotson said the teen tried to continue firing, but his gun jammed. In response, the officer, who had not been hit, fired at least 17 rounds at the teen, killing him.

Dotson said a 9mm Ruger handgun that allegedly belonged to the teen was recovered at the scene. He also said a forensics search located three bullets that had been fired at the officer.

“An investigation will decide if the officer’s behavior was appropriate,” the police chief said.

The shooting led to an angry protest.

Dotson praised his department's  response to the angry crowd of at least 200 protesters, saying they showed a “tremendous amount of restraint” despite the damage to police cars.

“We will do everything we can to support everybody’s right to protest and allow their voices to be heard as long as it doesn’t infringe on other people’s rights,” Dotson said.

According to a tweet from St. Louis Alderman Antonio French of the 21st Ward, who had been closely involved in the protests after Brown’s killing, the victim’s mother fainted when she arrived at the scene of the shooting.

“An ambulance came to attend to her,” French tweeted. “There is nothing like a mother’s pain at the loss of a child.”

The protesters smashed the windows of several police cars, according to published reports, as many shouted ”Hands up, don’t shoot,” referring to the fatal shooting in August of Brown about 16 miles away. They also shouted ”We’re young, we’re strong, we’re marching all night long!” and “Fight back, fight back!”

The demonstrators claimed that Myers had been shot 16 times.

At a news conference on Thursday, Democratic state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed questioned why the officer approached Vonderrit Myers in the first place. She called it a clear case of racial profiling.

Culled