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| St Louis police fatally shoot 'erratic' man with knife near Ferguson | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Police shot dead a 23-year-old man wielding a knife in the St Louis area on Tuesday. | |
| Sam Dotson, the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department for the city of St Louis, confirmed the shooting in a press conference and a tweet, and said the person who was shot was brandishing a knife at officers. No police were injured, and Dotson said officers, who had cordoned off the scene, are investigating. | |
| Local news outlet KSDK reports that the shooting took place in the north St Louis area, about three to four miles from ongoing protests in Ferguson, Missouri, where residents and outsiders have joined demonstrations over the killing of an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown. Brown, 18, was shot six times by a police officer in an encounter whose details remain contested. | |
| Dotson said during a press conference that the armed suspect was “acting erratically” and that people in the area contacted police. The victim had stolen two energy drinks from a convenience store, Dotson said. | |
| Dotson said witnesses could hear the man saying “Shoot me now, kill me now.” | |
| He said the man, a 23-year-old African American, did not respond to demands to drop his weapon as he approached the officers, carrying the knife with an overhand gesture. The man was within three to four feet of the officers when they shot him. | |
| The police shooting happened around 12.30pm local time, and Dotson told reporters: “I think officer safety is the number one issue.” | |
| Crowds that had gathered at the scene of the shooting became rowdy during a press conference with St Louis police chief Sam Dotson, chanting the refrain popularized by the Ferguson protests: “Hands up, don’t shoot.” | |
| Residents were able to temporarily calm the crowd until the end of the press conference, after which shouting resumed, according to the St Louis Dispatch. Dotson then entered the crowd and repeated the information he had shared with the press. | |
| Some members of the crowd asked why tasers were not used to stop the man, who was wielding a knife as he approached police. But tasers are not standard issue for St Louis police, said MSNBC’s Christopher Hayes. | |
| The officers involved have been placed on administrative duty pending an investigation, Dotson said. Yamiche Alcindor, reporter for USA Today, spoke with residents who feared unrest and police action in the coming hours. | |
| Just talked to a woman who has lived nearby the scene of the second shooting for 48 years. She said she is terrified about what comes next |