St. Louis police arrested nine people and deployed tear gas to break up protests that followed the police killing of an 18-year-old man who authorities say pointed a gun at two officers.
Protesters threw glass bottles and bricks at officers and refused to clear the roadway, Chief Sam Dotson told reporters late Wednesday.
On Wednesday afternoon, according to police, two officers were executing a search warrant at a home in a crime-plagued neighborhood when two armed men fled out the back.
The officers shot Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, after he turned and pointed a gun at them, police said. The second suspect fled, they said. The officers were white; Bell-Bey and the other suspect were black, police said.
Tensions were already high in the St. Louis area after violence erupted around the anniversary of the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb.
Dotson said that four guns, including a handgun that Ball-Bey was carrying, and crack cocaine were found at the home. Another man and a woman who were inside the home were arrested, he said.
About 150 people gathered in protests near the scene of the shooting. Officers also responded to burglaries near the scene, and a car was set on fire, the police chief said. He blamed the crimes on people seeking “notoriety.”