Thursday, December 25, 2014
A glance at key police shootings in St. Louis area | The Miami Herald
The shooting death of 18-year-old Antonio Martin marks the third fatal shooting of a young black man by a white police officer in the St. Louis area since Michael Brown was killed in August. Here's a glance at the circumstances in each case: Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, was shot and killed shortly after noon Aug. 9 following an apparent scuffle in the middle of the street with Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson at his police vehicle. Brown's body lay there for hours as police investigated and an angry crowd of onlookers gathered. Several days of tense protests that sometimes turned violent followed in the predominantly black suburb, prompting Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to call in the National Guard. St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch decided to present the case to a grand jury rather than appoint a special prosecutor. The grand jury met 25 days over three months, and heard more than 70 hours of testimony from 60 witnesses before declining to indict Wilson in the shooting. The decision in November reignited unrest in the St. Louis area as well tensions between citizens and police across the nation. Kajieme Powell, 25, was shot and killed by St. Louis city officers on Aug. 19 after he moved toward them with a knife. Each of the two officers fired six shots. Powell died at the scene. Police said Powell had stolen two energy drinks and a bag of doughnuts from a convenience store. They said the officers who responded to the call shot him after he acted erratically, refused to drop the steak knife and told them "Shoot me now. Kill me now." The St. Louis police chief released 911 audio, surveillance video and cellphone video of the fatal shooting days later, acknowledging that tensions in nearby Ferguson had created a need for greater transparency regarding officer-involved shootings. Vonderrit Myers, 18, was killed Oct. 8 when an off-duty St. Louis police officer shot him eight times. The officer was working a moonlighting job as a security guard hired to patrol a neighborhood near the Missouri Botanical Garden in south St. Louis. Though not on duty, he was wearing his police uniform and armed with his department-issued gun. Police officials said the officer became suspicious when Myers and the men with him started to run after he approached them. A chase ensued and the officer and Myers got into a physical confrontation. After Myers pulled away, police claim he started shooting at the officer. Ballistic evidence released by police shows Myers fired three shots before his gun jammed. Police said they recovered the gun, which had been reported stolen in September. Myers' family contends that he was unarmed and that the officer mistook an object Myers was holding for a gun. Antonio Martin, 18, was shot and killed by a Berkeley officer after police said Martin pointed a gun at him. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the officer was questioning Martin and another man on Dec. 23 at a gas station about a theft at a convenience store in the suburb when the young man pulled a 9mm handgun on him. The officer stumbled backward but fired three shots, one of which struck Martin. Belmar said the officer wasn't wearing his body camera and the dashboard camera was not activated because the patrol car's emergency lights were not on. The 34-year-old officer, a six-year veteran of the Berkeley Police Department, is on administrative leave pending an investigation.
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