St. Louis police kill unarmed boy, law-abiding citizens demand justice!
NATION
Anger follows police shooting in St. Louis suburb
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FERGUSON, Mo. -- The fatal shooting of a black teenager by police sent hundreds of angry residents out of their apartments Saturday in a St. Louis suburb, igniting shouts of "kill the police" during a confrontation that lasted several hours.
The shooting occurred around noon Saturday at the Canfield Green Apartment complex. Ferguson police confirmed it was one of their officers who opened fire.
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A teenage male is dead after being shot by police officers at the Canfield Green Apartments in Ferguson, Mo.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson told the Post-Dispatch that the officer involved has been placed on paid administrative leave.
Family members identified the shooting victim as 18-year-old Michael Brown. Desiree Harris, who says Brown is her grandson, says she found his body in the middle of the street minutes after he was expected to arrive at her home in suburban St. Louis neighborhood.
Harris, said she saw him running in her neighborhood Saturday afternoon when she passed him in her car. Just minutes later, after she returned home, she heard a commotion and went outside to check on it. Less than two blocks away, she found Brown's body.
"He was running this way," she said. "When I got up there, my grandson was lying on the pavement. I asked the police what happened. They didn't tell me nothing."
The Post-Dispatch reported several distraught relatives were outside talking with neighbors, including Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, and stepfather, Louis Head. Head held a sign that read: "Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son!!!"
Officer Brian Schellman, spokesman for the St. Louis County Police Department, said "a couple hundred" people came out of area apartment buildings after an officer with the Ferguson Police Department shot and killed the teen. Schellman did not say what prompted the shooting.
Schellman said some people yelled threats toward the police, and officers said they thought they heard gunshots from the crowd.
There were no reports of additional injuries, Schellman said.
John Gaskin, a member of the St. Louis County NAACP, said the FBI should get involved "to protect the integrity of the investigation." He alluded to the 2012 racially-charged shooting of a 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was subsequently acquitted of murder charges, as well as the death of a New York man from a police chokehold after he was confronted for selling individual cigarettes on the street.
"With the recent events of a young man killed by the police in New York City and with Trayvon Martin and with all the other African-American young men that have been killed by police officers … this is a dire concern to the NAACP, especially our local organization," Gaskin said.
Gaskin said officials in the organization spoke with St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, who told them teenager had been shot twice.
"We are hoping for calm and for people to give us a chance to conduct a thorough investigation," Jackson said.
Gaskin said the angry crowd was reacting to a "trauma."
"Anytime you have this type of event that's taken place, emotions are going to run high," he said. "But for 600 people to gather around an area to see where a man is lying in the street, that means something happened that should have not happened."
By early Saturday night, dozens of police cars remained parked near the shooting scene as mourners left votive candles, rose petals, a large stuffed animal and other remembrances at a makeshift memorial in the middle of the street.
Harris said her grandson had recently graduated high school and was looking forward to the future, including possibly attending college.
"My grandson never even got into a fight," she said. "He was just looking forward to getting on with his life. He was on his way."