A WHITE Missouri police officer fatally shot a black teenager at a gas station on Tuesday, Dec. 23 in Berkeley, Mo. a neighboring town just two miles from Ferguson, where the shooting of Michael Brown sparked nationwide protests and conversation about police brutality.
Police say that surveillance video from the confrontation showed the teenager, 18-year-old Antonio Martin, pointing a gun at the officer in a gas station parking lot right around 11 pm before the officer fired his gun, fearing for his life.
The unnamed officer, who is white and a six-year veteran, was placed on administrative leave.
St. Louis County Police released video clips from three different angles that captured parts of the scene on YouTube. The unnamed officer can be seen parking his vehicle in the lot, and a conversation ensues. The young man’s arm appears to be raised, but neither then teen nor police officer are clearly visible at the moment the shooting happens, the entire confrontation lasting barely a minute. One man is seen running away. A loaded 9 mm handgun was recovered at the scene.
Chief Jon Belmar from St. Louis County Police, who is part of the investigation, said that the officer fired at least three rounds while Martin did not fire any, but pointed his gun straight at the officer. “I understand the emotions…but I think we need to understand the context of what happens with these types of situations.
“These are nothing but tragedies,” Belmar said. “There are no winners here.”
Belmar also said that the anonymous officer was responding to a theft call when he pulled into the gas station. He left his cruiser and was talking to two men in the lot when one of them, reportedly Martin, backed away and then stepped forward pointing his gun.
The officer had also been assigned a body camera, but was not wearing it at the time of the incident, Belmar confirmed.
Martin’s mother, Toni Martin, said her son was on the way to meet his girlfriend when the fatal encounter happened, and that he was not carrying a gun.
“He only just left the house to go see her,” she said, angry as the body lay covered on the ground outside the Mobil gas station.
“He was supposed to come home,” said Martin’s father, Jerome Green. “We’re getting ready for the holiday; everyone wanted to see him.”
The Dec. 23 shooting led to more tensions and unrest between citizens and Missouri law enforcement. Nearly 100 protesters gathered around the Berkeley station and streets, getting into police scuffles and marching through intersections and a major highway, even on Christmas Eve.
Bricks and bottles were thrown at officers, and what looked like a firework exploded near a gas pump at the scene, video showed of the night’s demonstrations. “To come there carrying explosive devices is not safe for our city,” Belmar said with concern.
Several officers and protesters were hospitalized for injuries. Six to eight people were arrested that night, according to Police Chief Frank McCall.
“This was not the same as Ferguson,” said Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins, adding that the shooting could not be compared to the Brown incident, nor the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York. He also pointed out that the Berkeley police department is majority-black.
“All of us are saying the same thing: ‘It’s a white policeman killing a black man, and when does this stop?’ I can assure you that is not what happened…Everybody don’t die the same,” Hoskins, who is black, said. “Some people die because the policeman initiated. Some people die because they initiated it. And at this point, our review indicates that the police did not initiate this, like Ferguson.”
The Mayor promised more thorough investigation from both local and county police, saying he would not “tolerate brutality of any policeman on our citizens.”
A peaceful protest was also staged early Christmas morning outside of a nearby church, with the demonstrators much calmer than the night before.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon released a statement supporting the officer. “The events in Berkeley are a reminder that law enforcement officers have a difficult, and often dangerous, job in protecting themselves and law-abiding citizens,” he said. (With reports from Huffington Post, ABC News, CNN, NBC News)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend December 27-30, 2014 Sec. A pg.5)
