Officer kills armed 18-year-old near Ferguson

Associated Press
By JIM SUHR and JIM SALTER 1 hour ago
BERKELEY, Mo. (AP) — Violent protests broke out again in suburban St. Louis after another black 18-year-old was fatally shot by a white police officer.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the officer was questioning the 18-year-old and another man about a theft late Tuesday at a convenience store in Berkeley when the young man pulled a 9mm handgun on him. The officer stumbled backward but fired three shots, one of which struck the victim, Belmar said.
Berkeley is just a few miles from Ferguson, Missouri, where a white police officer fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, on Aug. 9. Brown's death sparked weeks of sometimes violent demonstrations, and a grand jury's decision to not charge Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting has spurred a nationwide movement to protest police brutality.
Belmar declined to name the 18-year-old killed in Berkeley, but a woman at the scene told reporters she was his mother and identified him as Antonio Martin. Belmar said he was 18 years old and black.
The 34-year-old white police officer, a six-year veteran of the Berkeley Police Department, is on administrative leave pending an investigation, Belmar said. St. Louis County police and the city of Berkeley are investigating, Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins said.
"He will carry the weight of this for the rest of his life, certainly for the rest of his career," Belmar said of the unnamed officer. "There are no winners here."
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Violent protests break out in suburban St. Louis
Police try to control a crowd Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014, on the lot of a gas station following a shoo …
The officer wasn't wearing his body camera and the dashboard camera was not activated because the patrol car's red lights were not on, Belmar said.
Police released surveillance video from the parking lot outside the store. The nearly two-minute clip shows two young men leaving the store as a patrol car rolls up. The officer gets out and speaks with them. About a minute-and-a-half later, the video appears to show one of the men raising his arm, though what he is holding is difficult to see because they were several feet from the camera. Belmar said it was a 9mm handgun.
Police were searching for the other man, who ran away.
It was the third fatal shooting of a black suspect by a white police officer in the St. Louis area since Brown was killed. Kajaime Powell, 25, was killed Aug. 9 after approaching St. Louis officers with a knife. Vonderrit Myers Jr., 18, was fatally shot Oct. 8 after allegedly shooting at a St. Louis officer.
Each shooting has been met by protests, and a crowd quickly gathered late Tuesday in Berkeley. The demonstration involving about 300 people turned violent.
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Police hold back a crowd at the perimeter of a scene …
Police hold back a crowd at the perimeter of a scene on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014, following a shooti …
More than 50 police officers, some in riot gear, responded. Video showed some wrestling with protesters. Belmar said officers used pepper spray but not tear gas. Four people were arrested on charges of assaulting officers.
Belmar said three explosive devices, possibly fireworks, were tossed near gas pumps. Some protesters threw rocks and bricks. One officer was hit by a brick and treated for facial cuts. Another was treated for a leg injury sustained as he tried to escape an explosive.
Orlando Brown, 36, of nearby St. Charles was among the protesters.
"I understand police officers have a job and have an obligation to go home to their families at the end of the night," he said. "But do you have to treat every situation with lethal force? ... It's not a racial issue, or black or white. It's wrong or right."
Brown said he was pepper-sprayed during the protest and that his friend was arrested for failing to disperse.
Hoskins said it is unfair for protesters to compare the Berkeley shooting to the Michael Brown case, noting there was no video of the fatal encounter in Ferguson. Also, Ferguson was criticized for having only three black officers on its 53-member force. Seventeen or 18 of Berkeley's 31 officers are black, as is the police chief and the city's top elected officials, said Hoskins, who is black.
Hoskins' news conference was interrupted by a pointed exchange with Jason Keith Coleman, a black Baptist minister who insisted the shooting was the latest example of deadly aggression by "trigger-happy" police toward blacks.
"Call it what it is — a police officer has killed another black man and this has got to stop," Coleman shouted at the mayor.
"Everybody don't die the same," Hoskins countered. "Some people die because they initiate it, and at this point, our review suggests police did not initiate it."
Belmar said the 18-year-old had a considerable criminal record in the less than two years since he turned 17, with three assault charges, armed robbery, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.

Some protesters questioned why the officer couldn't use pepper spray or a stun gun."Frankly, that's unreasonable," Belmar said. "When we had somebody pointing a gun at a police officer, there's not a lot of time."
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