POLICE in the United States (U.S.) state of Missouri
have fatally shot a black teenager, who they say
pointed a gun at them, and later faced angry crowds,
reigniting racial tensions in the country.
Sam Dotson, the police chief of the city of St Louis,
said the shooting took place on Wednesday when
young black men ran out of the back door of a house
where two officers were carrying out a search warrant.
Officers ordered the pair to stop in an alley behind the
house. One suspect pointed a gun at officers who then
fired four times, killing him, Dotson said. “Detectives
were looking for guns, looking for violent felons,
looking for people that have been committing crimes
in the neighbourhood,” he said. Police identified the
slain suspect as Mansur Ball-Bey, 18.
The second teenager fled. Both officers, who are
white, were unharmed, police said, adding that they
were on administrative leave. Following the incident,
crowds gathered at a nearby intersection shortly after
the shooting and then again in the evening.
Three people were arrested for blocking traffic, police
said. NBC television affiliate KSDK reported that
some in the crowd threw rocks at officers, who
responded with what appeared to be tear gas. St. Louis
television station Fox 2 showed officers in riot gear
lined up across a street, a burning mattress and clouds
of smoke or tear gas.
St. Louis Alderman, Antonio French, posted on
Twitter that a vacant house and a car were set on fire,
and that firefighters were working under heavy police
guard. Dotson the police chief told reporters that Ball-
Bey’s gun was stolen and said officers recovered
crack cocaine at the scene.
The city police said the officers involved in the
shooting were white, aged 33 and 29, each with about
seven years on the force. The shooting came 10 days
after the city was flooded with protesters marking the
anniversary of the killing of unarmed black teenager
Michael Brown by a white police officer on August 9
last year in Ferguson, not far from St Louis.
Brown’s death helped spark a nationwide movement
against what protesters say is police violence against
minorities. Wednesday’s shooting also came as
activists were in the area to mark the anniversary of
the police shooting of another black man in St. Louis,
Kajieme Powell. Police say officers shot Powell when
he approached them with a knife.
have fatally shot a black teenager, who they say
pointed a gun at them, and later faced angry crowds,
reigniting racial tensions in the country.
Sam Dotson, the police chief of the city of St Louis,
said the shooting took place on Wednesday when
young black men ran out of the back door of a house
where two officers were carrying out a search warrant.
Officers ordered the pair to stop in an alley behind the
house. One suspect pointed a gun at officers who then
fired four times, killing him, Dotson said. “Detectives
were looking for guns, looking for violent felons,
looking for people that have been committing crimes
in the neighbourhood,” he said. Police identified the
slain suspect as Mansur Ball-Bey, 18.
The second teenager fled. Both officers, who are
white, were unharmed, police said, adding that they
were on administrative leave. Following the incident,
crowds gathered at a nearby intersection shortly after
the shooting and then again in the evening.
Three people were arrested for blocking traffic, police
said. NBC television affiliate KSDK reported that
some in the crowd threw rocks at officers, who
responded with what appeared to be tear gas. St. Louis
television station Fox 2 showed officers in riot gear
lined up across a street, a burning mattress and clouds
of smoke or tear gas.
St. Louis Alderman, Antonio French, posted on
Twitter that a vacant house and a car were set on fire,
and that firefighters were working under heavy police
guard. Dotson the police chief told reporters that Ball-
Bey’s gun was stolen and said officers recovered
crack cocaine at the scene.
The city police said the officers involved in the
shooting were white, aged 33 and 29, each with about
seven years on the force. The shooting came 10 days
after the city was flooded with protesters marking the
anniversary of the killing of unarmed black teenager
Michael Brown by a white police officer on August 9
last year in Ferguson, not far from St Louis.
Brown’s death helped spark a nationwide movement
against what protesters say is police violence against
minorities. Wednesday’s shooting also came as
activists were in the area to mark the anniversary of
the police shooting of another black man in St. Louis,
Kajieme Powell. Police say officers shot Powell when
he approached them with a knife.
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