St. Louis Police Fatally Shoot Armed Black Teen In Stolen Car

St. Louis police Chief Sam Dotson said a 19-year-old man was fatally shot Wednesday night after he pointed a gun at two officers.
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

St. Louis police said a 19-year-old black man was fatally shot Wednesday night after he pointed a gun at two officers.

Chief Sam Dotson said officers spotted a red Chevrolet Monte Carlo that had been reported stolen last month around 9:45 p.m. and followed the car until it struck a retaining wall, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The two officers then approached the car. Dotson said the man in the passenger seat got out of the vehicle holding a gun with a magazine capacity of up to 30 rounds, according to the newspaper.

The officers asked the suspect to drop his weapon and opened fire when he refused, Dotson said. The Post-Dispatch reported that the man was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead.

Both the suspect, 19, and the stolen car’s driver, also 19, were black, according to the newspaper. Dotson said the driver cooperated with officers and was taken into custody.

The suspect’s name has not been released.

A new unit created to review officers’ use of force was investigating the shooting, according to local TV station KSDK. The Post-Dispatch reported that one of the officers involved in the shooting is black while the other is white.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. “Dem ni**ers needed killin’. Could see it in their eyes”

  2. Here comes another white wash.

  3. You were there? Even though we have witnesses to the shooting, and the driver is one of them, you don’t want to even hear what they have to say before judging this? I’ll wait on hearing from everyone before passing judgment. All I know now is the guy who was shot was a gun nut who had a gun that could hold 30 rounds, an Intratec 9mm pistol. But hey, I’m sure he was just exercising his Second Amendment Rights and of course only used it for hunting. He was also in a stolen car, and has an extensive criminal record that includes auto theft and burglary. Those are the facts right now. Now let’s see what the witnesses say. Seems like a reasonable approach.

  4. You’re the one who jumped to a completely unsupported conclusion.

    And can the ad hominem abusiveness. Flagged.

  5. For all the mess surrounding the brutality and trigger-happiness evident in Brown and Garner and other’s murders at the hands of police, you still have to be objective and take each situation on its own. They chased car thieves who fled and crashed the stolen vehicle. They shot the guy who got out with a gun (apparently with an extended or at least really large clip) and didn’t shoot the other guy or nail him in an indiscriminate, haphazard hail of bullets just because the other guy gave them the excuse to fire. That suggests to me they were likely acting appropriately. Unless and until further information comes out suggesting otherwise, this situation strikes me as distinguishable from the ones we are rightfully pissed about.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

7 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for buckguy Avatar for Patriott Avatar for mrcomments Avatar for Lacuna-Synecdoche Avatar for sniffit Avatar for fitley Avatar for nemo Avatar for barblzz Avatar for ronbyers Avatar for misterneutron Avatar for an_american

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: