Berkeley (MO) officials: Man killed by police had pointed gun at officer [View all]
Source: STL Post-Dispatch
Leaders here have tried desperately to distinguish the police killing of 18-year-old Antonio Martin on Dec. 23 from that of Michael Brown in Ferguson 4½ months earlier, which sparked months of racially charged protests and put law enforcement under a national microscope.
On Tuesday, Berkeley’s mayor, police chief and other officials held a press conference to announce that a city investigation had determined that the officer, who is white, was in fear for his life and justified to shoot Martin, who was black. They said there was evidence that Martin pointed a gun at the officer in a convenience store parking lot.
It’s a sharp contrast to the Ferguson investigation, in which information seemed to trickle out over a four-month period. That culminated just before Thanksgiving when a grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson, a white officer who killed a black teen, Brown, in a street confrontation.
St. Louis County police also are reviewing the Berkeley shooting in an investigation that continues.
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/berkeley-officials-man-killed-by-police-had-pointed-gun-at/article_5027be1d-c99e-5cb9-9c1a-04ca73316591.html
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