Tear Gas and Arrests in St. Louis After Police Kill Black 18-Year-Old Suspect
A crowd of angry protestors devolved into a cloud of tear gas, broken bottles and arrests last night after St. Louis police fatally shot a black 18-year-old suspect while executing a search warrant Wednesday.
The trouble began when two SLPD officers initiated a search warrant at a home “in a crime-troubled section of St. Louis.” That’s when Mansur Ball-Bey and another black male allegedly ran out the back door of the home, the AP reports.
The officers chased the two men, shooting Ball-Bey approximately four times after he allegedly pointed a gun at them. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The officers—both white—were unharmed.
Officers reportedly obtained the warrant “because they believed the home harbored suspects in other crimes,” according to St. Louis police chief Sam Dotson. The neighborhood has been home to shootings and carjackings in recent months, and cops say they found four guns and crack cocaine at the scene.
But the shooting—almost exactly one year after Ferguson officer Darren Wilson killed 18-year-old Michael Brown and exactly one year after St. Louis police shot and killed 25-year-old Kajieme Powell—angered residents, who began protesting later that day.
According to the AP, close to 150 people came out, some chanting “Black Lives Matter.” It was not, according to reports, entirely peaceful..
Later Wednesday, police made nine arrests and used tear gas to clear a street after protesters ignored commands and threw glass bottles and rocks at officers, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said, adding that officers were also responding to reports of burglaries in the area.
A car was also reportedly set on fire, and a SWAT team was eventually summoned.
Dotson dismissed questions of racial tension, saying the violence was just people “seeking notoriety.”
