Another police-involved fatal shooting of a teenager, this time in the south side of the City of St. Louis, led to hours of protests into this morning as an angry crowd gathered quickly when news spread across social media, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Police Chief Sam Dotson said the officer was off-duty, working a secondary job for a private security company, when he chased and fatally shot an 18-year-old male last night who came at him aggressively in a gangway.
The teen had a gun and fired at least three shots at the officer, who returned fire, the chief said. The teenager attempted to fire more but his gun jammed. The officer, who was unhurt, fired 17 times. It is unclear how many times the teenager was struck. Police said they recovered a 9mm Ruger. Relatives of the dead teen identified him as Vonderrit Myers Jr., 18. They disputed the police version. They say he didn’t have a weapon. “He was unarmed,” said Teyonna Myers, a cousin of the teen. “He had a sandwich in his hand, and they thought it was a gun. It's like Michael Brown all over again.”