Thursday, October 9, 2014
Good morning:
More trouble in St.Louis last night.
An off-duty police officer shot and killed an 18-year-old black male in St.Louis last night. According to the police chief, the young man fired 3 shots at the officer during a chase. The officer returned fire squeezing off 17 shots.
A gun was recovered at the scene and a ballistics investigation confirmed that it had been fired three times.
The young man’s family is claiming he was not armed, raising the possibility that the officer might have used a throw-down weapon.*
The shooting is under investigation.
Hopefully, the victim’s hands were bagged at the scene and the ME will check for the presence of gunshot residue on them before washing the body prior to the autopsy.
The gun should be checked for prints.
*Many cops carry difficult-to-trace firearms acquired under questionable circumstances for the sole purpose of throwing them down on people they arrest or kill.
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Frederick Leatherman Law Blog 
FYI: more police BS http://www.bluejersey.com/diary/25835/economic-and-fiscal-failures-christie-corbett-by-the-numbers
At least this kid isn’t dead.
Sorry, wrong article: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/10/1335695/-Cop-knocks-out-teen-on-suspicion-of-marijuana-cigarette
He has neurological issues from this incident. Most likely NY will settle with him and the cop will keep his job. The department should settle with kid, however, the cop should be fired; there was no reason to hit him at all.
Well I understand that St Louis has several versions of this story before they settled on an attempted shooting by the deceased from first a knife, to a scuffle while doing a “citizen’s check” or whatever they called it to a chase. But there is one thing that really debunks everything. The eyewitnesses said he died with a sandwich in his hands and the store surveillance confirms he was in the store buying a sandwich less than 10min earlier as well as no sign of a weapon. This would make me conclude that he was running, while holding a sandwich, while shooting at the officer, while holding his pants up. If he didn’t have a sandwich in his hands when he died, how did the eye witnesses know he bought one earlier and then decided to collaborate on him holding a sandwich when he died?
Pretty soon we’ll have all the facts:
The suspect was holding a sandwich, reaching for his skittles, holding up his pants with his hand in his waistband looking suspicious while shooting the cop, beating his head on the ground and breaking his nose with the other [?] hand[s] and was resisting and bleeding on public property while bumrushing. And he said “homie.” Yeah … that’s it.
Wait……that’s like my “Octopus Defense” with Fogen……if it’s good enough for him, and that’s a low standard for a human, it’s good enough for anyone.
If he didn’t have a sandwich in his hands when he died, how did the eye witnesses know he bought one earlier and then decided to collaborate on him holding a sandwich when he died?
Because ALL black people know every other black person and what they did before they died.
it’s that simple (sarc).
same guy that told us the Brown shooting happened 32 feet from the suv? sorry but that fellow has no credibility.
That’s the same pin head…..Holy Moses…..
How do we go from brandishing a knife at a distance to tussling, then running in less than 18 hours ????????
Let me guess………he lied.
The press conference is not believable to me since he’s reading a script for the most part. He claims the kid is no stranger to law enforcement. Really….he has a criminal record but you won’t cite it, you know, so the citizens can actually hear and absorb the “truth”
17 shots eh……..seems to me the federal guns laws allows a maximum of 15 rounds, even LE. The law pertains to manufacturer, not a specialized owner, like a police dept. Funny, most LE agencies bitch about that very law, being, out gunned and shit.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/09/us/st-louis-officer-shooting/index.html
Just 12 miles south of the spot where a police officer killed Michael Brown, it happened again: Another 18-year-old died at the hands of police on Wednesday.
An off-duty officer opened fire on the teen, and the policeman didn’t stop until he’d fired his weapon 17 times, authorities say.
Late Thursday, St. Louis city Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Graham said the teen was hit seven or eight times.
“All but one gunshot wound was to the lower extremities. The one fatal wound was to the head,” he said.
Immediately after the shooting, anger erupted among residents, who damaged several police cars, and they pointed to what they felt were parallels to the Brown shooting. But in reality, the similarities are slim.
Off-duty cop shoots, kills man in St. Louis
Tensions rise after police shooting
Yes, the teen was black. And the officer was white. Yes, the officer fired several times. And it all unfolded in the St. Louis metro area.
But in this case, the 18-year-old was armed, and he fired on the officer first, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said.
Police didn’t name the slain teen, but the teen’s former attorney, Peter Cohen, identified him as Vonderrit Deondre Myers. Myers’ parents informed Cohen of their son’s death, the attorney said.
Myers’ death comes on the heels of the Brown shooting two months ago in the suburb of Ferguson, and just ahead of a “Weekend of Resistance” in St. Louis, where activists will push for movement in the investigation into that case.
Tensions are already high in the community, and it’s uncertain how the latest shooting will affect its mood.
“At the scene of yet another young man’s death,” tweeted St. Louis Alderman Antonio French. “This happens too often in our city. It’s a crisis that we should all be concerned about.”
An animated crowd quickly gathered late Wednesday near the site close to the Missouri Botanical Garden, chanting slogans as St. Louis police officers stood by.
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, these killer cops have got to go,” the crowd chanted, repurposing a popular chant from the Brown protests.
The confrontations with police were intense and laced with profanity.
“That was somebody’s baby,” screamed one man, referring to the man who was killed.
“Think about your own child,” pleaded another person in the crowd.
Despite the tensions, Dotson said no businesses were looted and no windows were smashed. He praised officers for showing a “tremendous amount of restraint” as members of the crowd confronted them face-to-face and damaged three police cruisers.
CNN affiliate KMOV reported that a post office was damaged.
Complete coverage of Ferguson
The officer, a six-year veteran of the force who has been put on administrative leave, was working a second job for a security company, one that was approved by his department. He was wearing his police uniform.
While on patrol, the officer saw three black males run away as he approached. He gave chase because one of them was holding up his pants in a way that made the officer believe the teen may be carrying a gun, Dotson said.
The officer and one of the three tussled. The teen ran off, then turned around and fired at least three shots at the officer, Dotson said.
The officer returned fire, killing the teen.
Off-duty officer shoots, kills man
Singing protest shocks crowd
Ferguson fights media over public records
Police recovered a 9 mm handgun. And Dotson said the teen was “no stranger to law enforcement.” He didn’t offer details, citing privacy concerns.
Online court documents show Myers was arrested June 27 and charged with unlawful use of a weapon, a felony, and resisting arrest. He’d been released on bond.
A hearing scheduled for Monday had been postponed, with the next hearing on November 17, the documents show.
The two other males have not been apprehended.
A man describing himself as the owner of Regal Foods in St. Louis, but who didn’t want to give his name, told CNN in a phone interview that Myers was in his store before the shooting.
Myers was wearing a T-shirt, the store owner said, adding that he didn’t see a gun. The teen bought a sandwich and left. He was shot across the street from the store about 10 minutes later, he said.
Myers’ cousin, Latara Franks, said another cousin, her brother and a family friend were with Myers, and they confirmed to her he purchased a sandwich at a corner store shortly before the shooting.
“He got in trouble with police, but he went to school and work,” Franks said of Myers. “I can’t believe they did him like this.”
In August, the death of the unarmed Brown fueled protests and sparked a nationwide debate on police use of force.
Protesters are planning a series of demonstrations, rallies and events in Ferguson and St. Louis this weekend to call for an end to racial profiling and what they call police violence.
Share your stories and opinions on the protests with CNN iReport
This weekend’s protests start with a rally outside the office of the prosecutor investigating the Brown shooting.
Demonstrators will call for Bob McCulloch to step aside and allow a special prosecutor to be appointed.
Additional marches and demonstrations will mark the weekend, along with “civil disobedience actions around the St. Louis region,” according to a statement from organizers that also says thousands of people from across the country are expected.
You know, if you’re planning some kind of crime, you don’t stop and buy a sandwich first. To me, the biggest fact in this case is that the private-duty cop decided to CHASE the three (two of whom were not arrested and the third of whom was killed). Chase them for what? According to the cop he chased them because he thought the one he killed had a weapon.
Oh yeah? Isn’t it dangerous to chase someone with a weapon? And apparently the deceased was NOT trying to rob or otherwise violate the security of the private company that was being protected by the security guard-cop at that time or THAT would have been reported as the reason for the kill.
No. This was another “chase and kill” incident.
A preliminary autopsy showed that Vonderrit Myers Jr., 18, was killed by a bullet that entered his right cheek and passed into his body. This suggested that he, like Michael Brown, was killed while surrendering or lying on the ground. He was shot between six and seven times, according to the St. Louis medical examiner.
I gather that several shots were fired. There are several possible interpretations of the one bullet trajectory you described, Betty. Besides, a cop who faces a life and death situation is allowed to continue shooting until the threat is neutralized. In such a scenario, the trajectory of the bullet that killed the threat won’t amount to anything of value (except in extremely few and very rare situations). If there are no eyewitness(ses) and/or video/audio evidence of the shooting, this case is dead. The “fact” (and we don’t know what the facts are) that the kid was armed and made use of his firearm (assuming that is true) against the shooter who is a cop makes this case even “deader”.
Cops are never really “off duty”. The only really “off duty” cop is the one that is sleeping or dead – seriously. Absent that, police powers always apply.
yet again the owner of a store comes forward, this time saying the victim bought a sandwich, did NOT have on any hooded sweatshirt and had NO GUN in the minutes before he was shot………the store owner says he knew the kid and he was NOT some problem kid…….
Here’s a recent report on the story.
UM…why are officers doing private (non-taxpayer-supported and therefore non-public) duty permitted to wear public uniform? UM… WHY are such private security officers permitted to decide persons are “suspicious” and chase them?
Sound like Fogen much?
So now ANYBODY who decides a Black man is “real suspicious” can kill him at any time with police cover-up protection in place?
Wow, the privileges of being a police officer.
A federal employee can not do any second job that has the same functions as his first for a rather logical reason – conflict of interest.
For example, a Patent Examiner can not be hired to prosecute a patent application for a private entity because objectivity is tainted.
Police are hired by the tax payers of the community to provide an equal level of “protect and serve” to all who reside in said community.
By being a hired gun for a private firm, the police set up a conflict of interest where those who pay for the second job get favorable treatment with respect to those who don’t.
Come on now, that cop will be tempted to give extra attention to that private firm while on his primary job.
The police always could. Now they expanded kill at will to mostly white men in these SYG states.
@ Malisha
Question: why, why, why? Why the police this, why the police that?
Answer: Black, Black, Black. Don’t you see 🙂
The Martin Luther King Jrs. and the Malcom Xses are all dead. The current generation of AAs just murmur and gnash their teeth quietly! There are no/a few other ethnic groups that will swallow what AAs permit others to do with them in the country. At what point would enough be enough? At what point will someone take on the cops?! The right to armed struggle to resist oppression is a solemn right enshrined in both Natural law as International law as well as in (the spirit of) the United States Constitution. If AAs don’t stand up and defend themselves, Whites won’t do that for them and their children will continue to be hunted like animals by sick, deranged thugs wearing police uniforms.The Jewish People learnt that lesson in the worst way imaginable to man and since then the words: “Never again!” will FOREVER reign supreme in the Jewish psyche.
(I have no intention of offending anyone because of race/ethnicity and most respectfully apologize in advance if anyone nevertheless feels offended).
Sandwich.
Skittles.
Iced tea.
Thug contraband.
Danger.
Notice: Young Black Mean: DO NOT EAT.
Imagine if one of them was skateboarding…..while eating Skittles.
…….and carrying Iced Tea and a Sandwich.
The more small details I find out, well, and pretty significant facts, the more I see what a liar the chief is.
We still have no idea why the young men were initially stopped by the police officer, whose name was not released (police names are rarely released; when they were forced to release the name of the man who killed Michael Brown recently, the police retaliated by smearing the dead teenager). Because of a number of unanswered questions, many people are skeptical of the police account, including that the young man had or fired a gun (yes, many here in St. Louis actually believe that the police may be lying; we recently caught the chief of police, backed by the mayor, lying about the killing Kajieme Powell, the young black man with the small knife).
A big question in my mind concerns the fact that the officer was off duty. If somebody is chasing ME and they’re off-duty, how do I imagine they’re police? If they’re NOT police, and they’re chasing me, why won’t I figure I better shoot them? I would be defending myself if I did.
That’s an excellent point. I don’t know if he was uniform or in a police vehicle. Since he was off-duty, he probably wasn’t in uniform or driving a marked police vehicle and the kids (there were supposedly 3 of them) might have mistaken him for a thug.
On second thought, that may not have been a mistake.
Difficult to tell these days.
They say he was working as a private security guard, so he was in PRIVATE SECURITY uniform. WTF? So what? A guy like Zimmerman can get a job as private security. To me, if someone doing private security (not a very prestigious job) chases me (rather than calling the police, if they think there’s a reason to chase someone), I’m in danger!!
No, he was wearing his police uniform and carrying his service revolver, which cops are allowed to do.
Oh that was an obvious lie too. Police chief in news conference right after shooting said the guy had knife waving it around and coming at cops. I saw none of that in the video. They should hold off on press conferences until they collect the video footage. Jmo.
“Brandishing.” Supposedly Powell was “brandishing” the knife. Well, even if he had a knife, he most assuredly was not “brandishing” it. He held his right arm down at his side throughout the entire incident.
I am disgusted that the cop shot at the teen 16 or 17 times. That’s ridiculous. How about if you can’t shoot you quit your job. How many shots hit the teen? How many shots are to many to the police? How many shots missed that could have hit innocent bystander? Fred is this normal and legal to shoot that many times? Seems excessive IMO.
Even if the young man did shoot at the cops, we have a brutal system in which cops are allowed the leeway to murder someone rather that try to bring them in for their due process. In other civilized countries, the chances are good that he’d disarmed by wounding him, allowing an arrest. Shame on America.
Doesn’t matter. The police can kill whomever they want.
A white man can kill black men.
#FTP
Or talking him down
These are different versions than I initially heard. the 1st was 1 shot followed by several of the cop, then no gun, no shots, just a sandwich and the 16 shots by the cop.
Sounds like the Nazi party taking over……just different victims.