St. Louis, Missouri Vs. The Police: Part II

Pardon me for not being a typical liberal but the only real problem I have with this incident is the officer needs more time on the firing range.

17 shots??!!??

That is a full clip from several automatics commonly used by police.

They should dock his pay for wasting ammunition.

Funny, not too long ago in San Diego some guy was waving aiming a gun at police, close to children, and they spent over half an hour talking him down. When that failed, they shot him one time in a non-lethal area before taking him into custody. Like they're supposed to. The guy in this case was white though.

The mother of a black 18-year-old who was killed by an off-duty St. Louis police officer said her son wasn't armed, as investigators contend.

Syreeta Myers told The Associated Press by phone Thursday that her son, Vonderrit D. Myers, was holding a sandwich when the officer killed him Wednesday night.

Police haven't identified the officer or the person he killed, or disclosed the officer's race. The killing sparked an angry demonstration, with many protesters likening it to the August killing of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white officer in nearby Ferguson.

St. Louis Police Chief Col. Sam Dotson said the 32-year-old officer, whom he didn't identify, was patrolling the historic Shaw neighborhood in his police uniform for a private security company at around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday when he saw three males, and one of them ran off before stopping.

When the officer did a U-turn all three ran, so the officer gave chase, first in his car and then by foot. During the chase, he got into a physical altercation with the one he eventually killed, Dotson said at an early-morning news conference.

Dotson said that at one point, the suspect's shirt raised and the officer saw what he thought was a gun. "The officer said he wanted to be certain it was a gun and did not fire at that point," he said.

The chief said the suspect ran up a hill, turned and opened fired on the officer, who returned fire and killed the man. Ballistic evidence shows that the teen fired three shots and tried to fire again but his gun jammed, he said, noting that the 9mm gun was recovered.

The officer, a six-year veteran of the St. Louis police force whose race wasn't immediately disclosed, fired off 17 rounds. Dotson said he didn't know how many of those bullets struck the suspect, or why the officer, who wasn't hurt, fired that many shots.

"An investigation will decide if the officer's behavior was appropriate," he said.

Asked about police claims that there was evidence the young man fired three shots and recovered a 9mm weapon at the scene, Syreeta Myers said, "Police lie. They lied about Michael Brown, too."

17 shots ~ and the officer needs more time at the firing range? OK

firing a handgun at a still target is moderately difficult at range.
Now do that at a moving target

Protesters angered by the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by police faced off with officers in south St. Louis for a second night as accusations of racial profiling prompted calls for a federal investigation ahead of a weekend of planned rallies and civil disobedience.

State and city leaders have urged the Justice Department to investigate the death of Vonderrit D. Myers in the Shaw neighborhood Wednesday night, fearing he was targeted because he was black. Police say the white officer who killed Myers was returning fire, but Myers' parents say he was unarmed.

"This here was racial profiling turned deadly," state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, a St. Louis Democrat, said at a news conference Thursday.

Myers' death comes two months after the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a black unarmed 18-year-old, by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson. Brown's killing sparked dozens of often violent protests in the St. Louis suburb. A state grand jury is deciding whether Officer Darren Wilson will face charges in his death.

Late Thursday night following a quiet candlelight prayer vigil for Myers, hundreds of people joined a more rowdy gathering in Shaw to protest his death.

Police in riot gear lined up on a high street, flanked by brand name stores and restaurants. Protesters yelled abuse and profanities to taunt the officers, who silently stood their ground. Police helicopters buzzed above the neighborhood. Officers used pepper spray to force the crowd back.

Some protesters burned the American flag, while others banged on drums and shouted "This is what democracy looks like!" Some slammed the sides of police vans. Broken glass littered the street.

Eventually the protesters backed off, moving a couple of blocks away. Riot police remained in the area.

You sir, have obviously never played this!

Duck Hunt is serious business.

Because a video game is an accurate representation of real life to you, huh?

Police said they used pepper spray to subdue some of 17 protesters arrested early Sunday in a St. Louis neighborhood not far from the suburb of Ferguson where violence erupted this summer after the shooting of a black man by a white policeman.

The arrests were the only incident in an otherwise peaceful weekend of demonstrations in St. Louis to highlight the unresolved fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August. The shooting sparked sometimes violent demonstrations in the predominantly black suburb of Ferguson, Missouri in August.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said at a news conference that early Sunday morning about 200 protesters gathered in a south St. Louis neighborhood where another black 18-year-old was killed by a white police officer recently. The group, including some protesters wearing masks, started marching toward a QuickTrip convenience store and tried to force open its doors, Dotson said.

"That was the first time (this weekend) we've seen individuals become disrespectful," Dotson said.

Police assembled in riot gear and instructed the crowd to disperse, he said. About 50 of the marchers created a human chain by locking their arms and about half of them heeded the police warning and left..

"The people who were left there were people who made a conscious decision they wanted to be arrested," he said.

At least one officer was hit by a rock but was not seriously injured. Some pepper spray was used to get those arrested to comply with police, Dotson said. Police were in the process later Sunday of releasing those arrested after they were charged with unlawful assembly.

Community activists and organizers of the weekend of protests did not immediately respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment on the police version of events.

The planned demonstrations began Friday afternoon with a march outside the St. Louis County prosecutor's office, where protesters renewed calls for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in the Aug. 9 death of Brown. A grand jury is reviewing the case and the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation.

Since Brown's death, three other fatal police shootings of black males have occurred in the St. Louis area. The most recent involved an off-duty St. Louis officer who was working for a private neighborhood security patrol when he shot and killed 18-year-old Vonderrit D. Myers on Wednesday night.

The white officer, whose name hasn't been released, fired 17 rounds after police say Myers opened fire. Myers' parents say he was unarmed, and many speakers at a weekend rally echoed those doubts.

Demonstrators stood outside Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis, where the Cardinals were playing the San Francisco Giants this weekend in the National League Championship Series of professional baseball. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that fans headed to the game mainly went around the protesters on Saturday night. Game 2 in the series was Sunday night.

Police Officer: Trust Me, Ferguson Changed Everything - the Daily Caller

TLDR: "Because Ferguson" - bad guys. "Wah" - cop.