Police say Myers was both armed and aggressive, using a stolen 9 mm gun to shoot at the officer.
Syreeta Myers said her son was holding a sandwich, not a gun. “Police lie. They lied about Michael Brown, too,” she told The Associated Press by phone Thursday.
About 200 people gathered Thursday night for a quiet candlelight remembrance at the sight where Vonderrit Myers was shot. Later, protesters shut down a major street.
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said the officer spotted Myers and two other males around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday while working a security job and patrolling a neighborhood near the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Dotson said the officer, who was off-duty but wearing his uniform, became suspicious when one of them started to run.
He heard one of them say, “No, that’s just a security officer,” Dotson said.
When the officer made a U-turn, all three ran and the officer chased them — first in his car and then on foot, Dotson said.
During the chase, he got into a physical altercation with Myers, who ran up a hill, turned and fired at the officer, the chief said. The officer, who wasn’t hurt, shot back.
Ballistic evidence shows Myers fired three shots before his gun jammed, Dotson said. Police said they recovered the 9 mm gun, which had been reported stolen on Sept. 26.
The officer fired off 17 rounds. Preliminary autopsy results show a shot to the head killed Myers, according to medical examiner Dr. Michael Graham.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Graham said Myers was shot six or seven times in the lower extremities and the fatal shot entered his right cheek.
The 32-year-old officer, a six-year veteran of the department whose name was not released, is on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.
The Ferguson case was on protesters’ minds as they gathered after Wednesday’s shooting. Some shouted “Hands up, don’t shoot,” a common refrain during weeks of sometimes violent protests after Brown’s death. Dotson said some in the St. Louis crowd shouted obscenities at officers and damaged three police cars, smashing windows and tail lights.
Police said one man was cited for being a felon in possession of a handgun after an officer spotted him putting on a ski mask inside a car, prompting a search.
Online court documents show Myers was free on bond when he was killed. He had been charged with unlawful use of a weapon, a felony, and misdemeanor resisting arrest in June.
Myers’ was the third fatal shooting of a black male by St. Louis-area police since Brown’s death.
“It’s imperative that we began to heal this community,” Nasheed said. “This community has been broken down. We have too many deaths at the hands of police officers.”
Nation of Islam member A. Akbar Muhammad of St. Louis said, “You have to ask the question: Is there a culture of racism in the police department?”
(Photo: Associated Press)
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