Black teen shot by St. Louis cop had gunpowder residue on hands – crime report
A black teenager killed by a police officer in St. Louis, coming just two months after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, had gunpowder residue on his hands, jeans and T-shirt, according to crime lab results.
Last Wednesday, Vonderrit Myers, 18, became the second black teenager to be shot and killed by a white officer in as many months. Meyer’s death reignited simmering rage on the streets of St. Louis, which is attempting to recover from the August 9 shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown.
READ MORE: St. Louis protesters clash with police ahead of ‘Weekend of Resistance’
In scenes becoming all-too-familiar for this Missouri city,
protesters took to the streets to speak out against
“police violence,” while demanding the arrest of Darren
Wilson, the white officer who killed Brown in August. A grand
jury is considering the evidence against the officer, but has not
yet reached a conclusion.
Meanwhile, the forensics results in the latest shooting incident
lends credence to the initial police report that Myers fired at
least three times at an off-duty police officer. Myers’ family
claims he did not own a gun, but police say they found the weapon
he allegedly fired at the crime scene.
The identity of the police officer who shot Myers has not been
released.
The St Louis Metropolitan Police Department said in a prepared
statement that the presence of gun powder residue on an
individual’s body or clothing could mean the person discharged a
firearm or was in proximity to a firearm when it was discharged.
#Ferguson cop on loudspeaker calls protest "illegal," threatens arrest for those "tresspassing" on walmart property. pic.twitter.com/WY4youRv2I
— Danny Wicentowski (@D_Towski) October 13, 2014
While St. Louis Police officials were largely silent following
Brown’s killing, they said they would be more forthcoming in this
latest incident that has once again cast the St. Louis Police
Department in a bad light.
"We're done as a police union standing in the shadows in
these cases. We are actively defending the officer involved in
the shooting," Jeff Roorda, manager of the St. Louis Police
Officers Association, told reporters Tuesday.
He believes the crime lab results confirm the police officer's
account of what happened.
"We saw in the wake of the Michael Brown Ferguson shooting
that there was a public outcry, fueled largely by agitators in
Ferguson where they demanded that police immediately release
details," Roorda said, as quoted by USA Today.
"That happened in this case. Police immediately, as information became apparent and known to them, released these facts. ... Even with that, we still saw violence in the street."
St. Louis Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Graham said last week that Myers was struck by seven or eight bullets, while police say the officer fired his weapon 17 times.
