BERKELEY, Mo. (AP) — A suburban St. Louis police officer shot and killed a man who pointed a gun at him at a gas station late Tuesday, police said.
A crowd of about 100 people were gathered early Wednesday at the scene in Berkeley, Missouri, a few miles from Ferguson, where a white police officer fatally shot black 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.
According to a statement from St. Louis County police spokesman Sgt. Brian Schellman, a Berkeley police officer was conducting a routine business check at a gas station around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday when he saw two men and approached them.
One of the men pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer, Schellman said. The officer fired several shots, striking and fatally wounding the man.
The second man fled, and the dead man's handgun has been recovered, according to Schellman.
The St. Louis County Police Department is handling the investigation, and no further details about the incident were immediately available.
Authorities did not immediately identify the man who was shot. But the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a woman at the scene, Toni Martin, said he was her son, 18-year-old Antonio Martin.
What can I say? This just keeps getting worse and worse! Another 18 year old shot and killed! Oh Mylanta!!!! Read more of the story from the source page. This is breaking news, so there will be more available later.
Just another day in that neck of the woods it seems like. The new normal.
One of the men pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer, Schellman said. The officer fired several shots, striking and fatally wounding the man.
I bet there are all sorts of video camera footage of this incident as it took place at a gas station. If the footage shows the kid drawing first, it's a justified shot.
Beware the man who has one gun, he probably knows how to use it.
Post by Mystic Wanderer on Dec 24, 2014 7:47:19 GMT -6
Doug, I agree with that. I'm concerned that officers are going to become a target because of the recent shooting that killed the two officers that were just sitting in their patrol car minding their own business.
This is definitely a case where I hope the cameras worked and the lenses were clean. I really hope it shows what the cops say happened. This Holiday Season doesn't need another unknown but questionable shooting for the nation to stew on.
I am so glad I don't have a job that is under this much scrutiny. It has to effect your job performance in a negative way. Just about the time you think twice about the ramifications of what the president will say, being put on public trial, going before a grand jury, and persecuted by the press. You will be the one killed and no one will even know why, you just died in the line of duty. Dirk said in another post he fears the future I can see why.
Who would want to be a policeman now, or choose the military CIA, FBI, or NSA as a career choice. We are allowing government and media to decide what is good for the country instead of the citizens. We are seriously screwing ourselves allowing this to happen.
There has to be better footage than that. But due to the ongoing investigation, it won't be released until later. Multiple cameras are usually pointing in all directions at a gas station that large.
Beware the man who has one gun, he probably knows how to use it.
What can I say? This just keeps getting worse and worse! Another 18 year old shot and killed! Oh Mylanta!!!!
18 is plenty old enough to know that pulling a gun on a cop is a dumbass move that is likely to end in one's own demise. I have NO sympathy for the suicidal little miscreant at all.
I just can't wait for all the stories to start cropping up telling us what a fine young man the jackass was, and all about how he was heading for college to be a doctor so he could help out orphans in the Amazon or some such tripe. I get a kick out of all the nominations for sainthood these street rats get after they get popped.
Like my dear old dad always told me - if you're a dumbass when your alive, you'll still be a dumbass after you're dead. It's too late for promotions to saint or genius after that happens.
Did I mention the fact that I have no sympathy for this cadaver at all?
Post by Mystic Wanderer on Dec 24, 2014 10:40:06 GMT -6
@ninurta, I have no sympathy for him either. As I stated above, my worry is for the police officers, and how this is going to "stir things up" even worse than they are between the cops and "hoodlums". d_hJZfC8t2FrknI9TjHM
According to this article, there have been 3 shootings since Brown's plot purchase, and all 3 have been celebrated by "protests". The "protest" in this case involved 300 "protestors" (already), thrown brick and rocks and "explosive devices" near the gas pumps.
This is not a good time to be a cop anywhere. I personally think they ought to cordon off these "restless" urban areas, just take all the cops out of there altogether, and let the people eat each other until the smoke clears. I wonder how loudly they'd be screaming for cops to come in and save them then?
I bet the "protests" would dry up like rain on a hot summer day.
Seriously - don't give me a job to do and then "protest" when I do it. I'll quit that job so fast I leave a hole in the air, and leave those citizens to fend for themselves if they act like they don't want me doing the job they hired me to do. If I had been a cop, I'd have turned my badge in at the inception of the second wave of Brown riots, and gone fishing.
What can I say? This just keeps getting worse and worse! Another 18 year old shot and killed! Oh Mylanta!!!!
18 is plenty old enough to know that pulling a gun on a cop is a dumbass move that is likely to end in one's own demise. I have NO sympathy for the suicidal little miscreant at all.
I just can't wait for all the stories to start cropping up telling us what a fine young man the jackass was, and all about how he was heading for college to be a doctor so he could help out orphans in the Amazon or some such tripe. I get a kick out of all the nominations for sainthood these street rats get after they get popped.
Like my dear old dad always told me - if you're a dumbass when your alive, you'll still be a dumbass after you're dead. It's too late for promotions to saint or genius after that happens.
Did I mention the fact that I have no sympathy for this cadaver at all?
I think I would have liked your dear old dad. The cure for a dumbass has always been a dirt nap they created on their own. Now that he has assumed room temperature he will no longer be pulling a gun on anyone let alone a cop. I checked the sympathy department they were fresh out.
I realized while I was still young that I could never be any sort of LEO.
I do have to say, whoever is in charge of the various factions here in Cleveland, OH, they are managing to keep tempers down across the board. Maybe because the city is not receiving as much press treatment as St. Louis makes it more maintainable?
Perhaps a smaller ghetto culture mentality population than St. Louis? Then again it could be just too cold to have a large protest.
Protests are going on here, but they are so much more peaceful, civilized even, compared to what's going on in St. Louis.
I am becoming numb to these types of incidents and the protests that follow.
Beware the man who has one gun, he probably knows how to use it.