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St Louis protests after police shooting of black teenager Antonio Martin St Louis protests after police shooting of black teenager Antonio Martin
(about 4 hours later)
Protests flared up late on Christmas Eve in the St Louis suburb where a white police officer shot dead a black teenager who brandished a gun at a petrol station on Tuesday night. Demonstrators took to the streets for a second night after a white police officer in Berkeley, Missouri, killed a black 18-year-old who police said pointed a gun at him.
A group of protesters marched onto Interstate 170 in the city of Berkeley, Missouri, at around 7pm on Wednesday, blocking traffic for about 45 minutes. The demonstration followed a vigil at the Mobil On The Run filling station where 18-year-old Antonio Martin was killed. Dozens of protesters held a vigil late Wednesday at the gas station in the St Louis suburb where Antonio Martin was shot, and they briefly blocked traffic on Interstate 170 during a march before returning to the station. Berkeley Police Chief Frank McCall told KMOV-TV that six to eight people were arrested.
The site is a few miles from the Ferguson street where a white police officer shot dead Michael Brown, 18, in August, which sparked weeks of protest. Later, about 75 people staged a peaceful protest early Christmas morning outside of a nearby church, according to the St Louis Post-Dispatch. Police in riot gear were present.
Demonstrations in Berkeley that drew as many as 150 people were largely peaceful throughout the night, but at one point officers disrupted an attempt by several people to break into a cosmetics shop. The actions were calmer than a night before, when a crowd of about 300 people gathered at the gas station, throwing rocks and bricks in a scene reminiscent of the sometimes-violent protests that followed the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson.
At least two people were taken into police custody. Authorities were unable to provide further details. Unlike in the death of Brown, who was unarmed and whose shooting was not captured on video, Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins said Wednesday that surveillance footage appeared to show Martin pulling a gun on the unidentified 34-year-old officer who questioned him and another man about a theft at a convenience store.
Black public officials in Missouri tried on Wednesday to distinguish the death of the suspect, whom they noted was holding a gun, from cases of unarmed black men who had been killed by police officers. The latter incidents have led to protests across the United States and bitter debate about how US police forces treat non-white citizens. Hoskins urged calm, saying, “You couldn’t even compare this with Ferguson or the Garner case in New York,” a reference to the chokehold death of Eric Garner, another black man whose death was caused by a white police officer.
“This is not a policeman in the city of Berkeley going out half-cocked,” Berkeley’s mayor, Theodore Hoskins, said at a news conference. “You could not even compare this with Ferguson.” Hoskins, who is black, also noted that unlike in Ferguson – where a mostly white police force serves a mostly black community – more than half of the officers in his city of 9,000 are black, including top command staff.
Shortly after the shooting, a crowd of up to 300 people gathered at the scene, where bricks and three fireworks were thrown, two of them at the roughly 50 officers at the scene, St Louis county police chief Jon Belmar said. State senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Democrat who has been critical of how police handled the Brown case, also said the Martin shooting was far different than Brown’s, noting that Martin pointed a weapon at the officer.
Two officers were injured and four people were arrested for assault, Belmar said. “That officer not only has an obligation to protect the community, but he also has a responsibility to protect himself,” said the senator, who is black. “Because of the video, it is more than apparent that his life was in jeopardy.”
The shooting occurred three days after a man shot dead two officers in their patrol car in New York City, targeting them only because of the uniform they were wearing. But Taurean Russell, co-founder of Hands Up United, asked if police had any reason to question Martin in the first place. Mistrust of police remains high among blacks, many of whom are weary of harassment, said Russell, who is black.
The Berkeley encounter unfolded after the officer, who was responding to a report of a theft, got out of his car to talk to two men at the petrol station. St Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar did not provide more details Wednesday about the theft Martin was being asked about. He said Martin pulled a loaded 9mm handgun and the officer fired three shots while stumbling backward. One hit Martin, who didn’t fire his own gun. He died at the scene.
One of them pointed a loaded 9mm handgun at the officer, Belmar said. Police released an indistinct, distant surveillance video from the petrol station, edited to end just before the shooting. “I don’t know why the guy didn’t get a shot off, whether his gun jammed or he couldn’t get the safety off,” said attorney Brian Millikan, who is representing the officer. He said that the officer was lucky to be alive and certain he had no choice but to use lethal force.
In the corner of the frame, one of the people at the station can be seen raising one or both arms in what might be a shooter’s stance near the police car, although the footage is too dark and grainy to establish that the person is holding a gun. Police throughout the country have been on alert since two New York officers were gunned down in an ambush last weekend by a man who had made threatening posts online about killing police. He later killed himself.
Two other videos released later by police were similarly ambiguous, recorded by security cameras that appear to have only restricted views of the scene. St Louis County police and the city of Berkeley are investigating the shooting of Martin, which Belmar called a tragedy for both Martin’s family and the officer, who has been on the force for six years.
The officer fired three shots, Belmar said, a sequence captured on one of the three videos. One bullet struck the man with the gun, whom paramedics declared dead at the scene, he said. “He will carry the weight of this for the rest of his life, certainly for the rest of his career,” Belmar said of the officer. “There are no winners here.”
Police said they found a handgun with a defaced serial number at the scene. The officer wasn’t wearing his body camera, and his cruiser’s dashboard camera was not activated because the car’s emergency lights were not on, Belmar said.
The officer, who was not identified and was put on administrative leave, had been given a body camera in a pilot programme but was not wearing it at the time of the shooting. The dashboard camera on the officer’s car was also off. Police released surveillance video clips from three different angles. The men can be seen leaving the store as a patrol car drives up. The officer gets out and speaks with them.
Protests in Ferguson have taken place for months and spilled over into violence when a grand jury decided a month ago not to charge the police officer who shot Brown. About 90 seconds later, one appears to raise his arm, though it’s difficult to see what he’s holding because they were several feet from the camera. Belmar said it was a 9mm handgun with one round in the chamber and five more in the magazine.
Demonstrations in cities across the country gained in momentum when a New York grand jury decided not to indict a police officer over the death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black man who died in July when police tackled him and put him in a choke hold. Police were searching Wednesday for the other man, who ran away.
Belmar said Martin had a criminal record that included three assault charges, plus charges of armed robbery, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.
Phone messages left for his parents were not returned. His mother, Toni Martin-Green, told the Post-Dispatch that Antonio was the oldest of four children.
“He’s like any other kid who had dreams or hopes,” she said. “We loved being around him. He’d push a smile out of you.”
His was the third fatal shooting of a young black man by a white police officer in the St Louis area since Brown was killed by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson on 9 August. Kajieme Powell, 25, was killed 19 August after approaching St Louis officers with a knife. Vonderrit Myers, 18, was fatally shot on 8 October after allegedly shooting at a St Louis officer.
Each killing has led to protests, as did a grand jury’s decision last month not to charge Wilson in Brown’s death.