St. Louis police chief Sam Dotson, left, appeals for calm alongside mayor Francis Slay, Thursday, August 20, 2015, West Side Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis.
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Police said they dispersed the initial group of demonstrators without tear gas, but protesters returned and ended up in a cat-and-mouse game with officers. Roderick Williams faces charges for unlawful possession of a firearm.
A vacant building and at least one auto were torched, police said.
Now, upon hearing the results, Dotson noted the location of the fatal wound neither proves nor disproves the account given by the two officers who were at the scene, according to CBS News. The 18-year-old died at the scene. According to such members of law enforcement, the great deal of media attention and scrutiny is making police worry about facing consequences for their actions, and causing them to think twice before pulling the trigger. His family believes the 18-year-old was unarmed when he was shot. Officers say Williams is not the other man who fled the home with Ball-Bey. Sources also say a witness has come forward who heard the officers’ shots, then saw Ball-Bey throw his weapon before running through a gangway and collapsing in the front yard.
Police and officials at the medical examiner’s office could not immediately be reached for comment. “We have some of the most progressive policies in the country [to address officer-involved shootings]”, Dotson said. His death set in motion the national Black Lives Matter movement. Several yelling onlookers surrounded individual officers.
“Another youth down by the hands of police”, area resident Dex Dockett remarked. “What could have been done different to de-escalate rather than escalate?”
Police routinely search for illegal drugs and stolen guns in the neighborhood, the chief said. “Situations like this make us want to keep the police out of the neighborhood”. They were both placed on administrative leave following the shooting.
Later, police released surveillance video that appeared to show the younger Harris pulling a handgun from his waistband and running in the direction of the officers. Police are still searching for the second suspect. The officer who killed Brown was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Police and protesters faced off Wednesday night, with tear gas used by police. And often when an officer confronts an armed suspect, “by the time that officer recognizes the threat, gets a signal sent to their brain, pulls their gun and fires, the suspect may already have turned”, Drago said.
Dotson, unreachable Friday by The Associated Press, has pledged a thorough internal investigation by the police’s year-old Force Investigation Unit. A market next to Wednesday’s shooting was riddled with bullets this week and ransacked hours after Ball-Bey’s death, and thieves made off with cellphones, cigarettes, food and medicine.
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Police said the shooting followed a plague of similar violence and crime in the neighborhood.
