Fatal officer involved shooting in south St. Louis leads to crowd unrest
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ST. LOUIS (KTVI) – In a press conference held just after 1 am St. Louis police chief Sam Dotson addressed the media about the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old male by an off-duty St. Louis police officer in the 4100 block of Shaw Boulevard.
Chief Dotson said the shooting occurred around 7:30 pm in the Shaw neighborhood, where the off-duty officer was on patrol on a secondary job for Hi Tech Security. The firm was hired by the neighborhood for extra security patrols in the area.
The fatal shooting will be the first case handled by the newly formed Force Investigative Unit which has taken over the investigation of the shooting. Dotson stated the officer involved in the shooting is a 6 year veteran of the department. The officer was on patrol when he noticed 3 African-American males at Klemm and Shaw. The men ran and the officer followed one of the men on foot through a gangway coming back upon the 3 men.
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One of the men approached the officer in an aggressive manner; the officer ordered the man to stop and gave instructions to him to surrender. The man continued to approach officer till a physical altercation occurred between the two.
The suspect ran away from the officer up a hill, turned and fired at least 3 shots at the officer. The officer returned fire, fatally wound the suspect.
Dotson said the suspect was not unknown to the department and that a 9mm Ruger was recovered from the scene.
Dotson acknowledge that emotions are running high after the shooting and that he understood the need for the protesters to show their frustration and that they had right to protest. His overriding concern was for the protection of life and property. No looting occurred, nor was any businesses vandalized. He also noted that some of the protesters at the scene and at the march on Grand were from Ferguson.
He did say some police vehicles were damaged with windows busted out.
Chief Dotson took issue with social media reports that stated the suspect only had a sandwich upon him. To which said he wanted to be as transparent as possible and get information out about the shooting.
No protesters were arrested during or after the demonstrations.