St louis officer fires 17 shots, says suspect opened fire first
The United States, just about recovering from racial tensions after a white police officer shot dead an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri two months ago, is faced with a roughly similar situation a few miles away with another white officer killing another black teen following a chase on Wednesday night.
The one key difference in this case, however, is the police assertion that the suspect was not only armed but it was he who pulled the trigger first, firing three shots. The officer retaliated, firing 17 shots at the teenager and killing him. The officer was not injured.
News of the fatal shooting in St. louis quickly spread across the social media, triggering angry demonstrations late into the night. The scenes were reminiscent of the protracted face-off between the Ferguson police and the town’s African-American community over the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The protesters demanded to know why the officer chose to fire as many as 17 shots.
“Black lives matter,” shouted the protesters, who marched to a major thoroughfare and blocked traffic.
The teenager killed in the Wednesday episode was identified by relatives as Vonderrit Myers Jr., 18. The relatives, speaking to St. louis Post-Dispatch, have disputed the police version that Myers was armed and was the first to open fire at the officer.
“He was unarmed. He had a sandwich in his hand, and they thought it was a gun. It’s like Michael Brown all over again,” asserted the teenager’s cousin, Teyonna Myers.
Police said they recovered the gun, a 9mm Ruger, from which the youth apparently fired at the officer, who was off-duty but was working in a secondary job for a private security company.
St louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said the officer, patrolling a neighbourhood for the private security firm, saw three black males run away when he spotted them. When he chased them and an altercation ensued, the suspect allegedly fired at the officer, who returned fire and killed him.
Dotson told reporters that ballistic evidence recovered from the scene indicated that the teen fired three rounds at the officer before his weapon jammed. The officer fired 17 shots, Dotson said, adding he didn’t know how many of those shots hit the suspect or why the officer fired that many shots.
The police chief did not identify the suspect, but said he was “no stranger to law enforcement”. The St. louis Post-Dispatch reported that Myers was scheduled to stand trial next month for unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest for a June 27 incident in which he was a passenger in a car involved in a high-speed car chase. The car crashed just after midnight and Myers ran off, but the police caught him and recovered the gun, a loaded .380-caliber pistol. The teenager was subsequently released on bail.