At approximately 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, Normandy Police officers responded to the 5800 block of Bermuda Drive for a report of a suicidal subject. Sanders says another officer then tased the boy to no effect, and then officers shot back at him. She said the Normandy officer who fired his service weapon is on administrative leave. Then he says he saw an officer dressed in blue chasing the teen, heard two more shots, and then saw him lying on the ground. He fled, officers lost sight of him, heard a gunshot, and found him on the ground. They called for medical assistance and he was taken to the hospital.
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Activists at Sanders’ press conference pressed her about discrepancies between her account and those provided by alleged eyewitnesses.
This active case is still being conducted by the St. Louis County Police Department’s Bureau of Crimes Against Persons.
Investigators are still asking for witnesses to come forward. “Again, these are the facts surrounding this investigation that are available at this time”, the statement said. Sanders asked anyone with information about the shooting to call St. Louis County police at 314-889-2341. According to a press release, family members had been following him and requested “police and medical intervention”.
Ferguson is the St. Louis suburb where black teen Michael Brown was fatally shot by white police officer Darren Wilson in August 2014. He then shot himself in the face of the front yard of a residence.
“Residents near Ferguson/Normandy say police shot man in the face, killing him”, wrote KTVI reporter Seth Lemon on Twitter. “Police say victim shot at them, then shot himself”. He was taken to a hospital, where he was in critical condition. Normandy police reportedly recovered a handgun next to Green at the scene. There are evidence technicians on the scene.
The area of this afternoon’s shooting in Normandy. A Justice Department report was issued in March that accused the Ferguson Police Department of “illegal and discriminatory enforcement actions that particularly exploited African-Americans”, according to Reuters.
Both a Normandy officer and a Ferguson officer were involved in the “exchange of gunfire”, according the Post-Dispatch, but it remains unclear if one or both opened fire, or what initiated the gun battle to begin with.
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In an earlier tweet, Nique2X can be heard describing the scene to another bystander or to someone on the phone.
