BERKELEY, Mo. — Authorities released a surveillance video Wednesday showing a confrontation that ended the night before with a white police officer killing an armed black man in this St. Louis suburb.
The shooting happened about 5 miles northwest of Ferguson, where a white police officer fatally shot unarmed Michael Brown in August, sparking months of civil unrest.
At about 11:15 p.m. CT Tuesday while conducting a routine business check, a police officer saw two males at the side of a gas station, Sgt. Brian Schellman, a St. Louis County police spokesman, said in a statement.
The officer, whose name has not been released, approached them. Then one of the men pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the officer, Schellman said.
"Fearing for his life, the Berkeley officer fired several shots, striking the subject, fatally wounding him," Schellman said. "The second subject fled the scene."
The 18-year-old suspect was armed with a loaded 9mm handgun, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said. The police department in Berkeley, a city of about 9,000 where more than eight in 10 residents are black, asked the St. Louis County Police Department to handle the investigation.
Authorities later identified the suspect as Antonio Martin, 18, of St. Louis. He died at the scene, but Belmar did not say where the fatal shot hit him and autopsy results are not yet available.
Martin's mother, Toni Martin, told KSDK-TV that her son did not have a gun and had only just left their home to go see his girlfriend.
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