Missouri: Arrests amid protests after fatal police shooting

Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, was was shot and killed by St. Louis police officers Wednesday, reportedly died from a single gunshot wound to the back, according to an autopsy, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Dotson defended police tactics Wednesday night when they made nine arrests and fired tear gas at protesters.

Police swiftly said Ball-Bey “turned and pointed a gun” at officers after fleeing the home raid through the back door with another teenager.

Some of those who gathered in the afternoon had spent the morning in downtown St. Louis, marching to mark the anniversary of the fatal police shooting of Kajieme Powell.

Police say they found a stolen gun and an extended magazine in Ball-Bey’s possession while in all four guns and an unspecified quantity of crack cocaine were recovered at the scene.

“The look that I saw on the two officers yesterday after they were involved (in the shooting of Mansur Ball-Bey) … is they were concerned, not for themselves, but for what was going to happen in this community”, Dotson said.

About 150 people gathered in protests near the scene of the shooting. St. Louis police are not equipped with body cameras but some officers videotaped the protests, during which shots were heard, according to Police Chief Sam Dotson. He blamed the crimes on people seeking “notoriety”. “Last night no police officers were injured, no protesters were injured”.

Protests break out in St Louis over 18-year-old’s death.

In a letter from attorneys Eric Bland and Robert Richter addressed to the US Justice Department, the lawyers assert that Morton “had additional criminal information regarding Adam Covington”, the son of Seneca police chief John Covington and a former reserve officer for the Seneca police.

Dotson said the crime rate is high in north St. Louis, where abandoned, boarded-up homes line many streets.

The results of the autopsy show Ball-Bey was struck in the upper right part of his back by a bullet that hit his heart and an artery next to the heart, said St. Louis Chief Medical Examiner Michael Graham.

In the neighbourhood at the weekend, a 93-year-old member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a black aviation unit from World War II, was robbed and carjacked. Protesters threw bricks and other objects at police before officers in riot gear arrived on the scene. One of the suspects raised his gun and pointed it at the officers, who then opened fire, killing one of the pair, while the other got away.

Dotson also disputed claims from protesters that his officers gave insufficient warning before using the tear gas.

Black Ferguson residents say the Oath Keepers have the privilege to wander the streets with assault weapons without worrying about being arrested or shot.

Wooten added: “Plainclothes police came approaching him and another young man with weapons drawn”.

Firefighters attempt to put out a fire in an abandoned building that was apparently set during protests over the police shooting of an 18-year-old black man.