(CNN) – An 18-year-old male held a gun “straight out” at a Berkeley, Missouri, police officer before that officer fired “what we think … were three shots,” St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said Thursday. The man — who died after being shot by the officer — is not believed to have fired any shots himself, according to Belmar.
The incident started around 11:15 p.m. when an officer in the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley approached two people during a routine check at a Mobil gas station, St. Louis County police spokesman Brian Schellman said.
After the officer left his squad car, one of the pair pointed a gun at the officer, who fired multiple times at him, killing him, Schellman said. The second person fled, police said.
The slain man was Antonio Martin, an 18-year-old African-American, his family told CNN.
Police say the officer, whose name wasn’t immediately released, shot in self-defense.
As news of the shooting spread, a crowd gathered, some among them yelling at a number of police officers who also had arrived. What looked like a firecracker exploded near a gas pump, video from CNN affiliate KMOV showed. A scuffle broke out, and officers grabbed some of the demonstrators and led them off in handcuffs.
Tuesday’s shooting happened more than four months after the controversial shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by a white police officer, just a couple of miles to the east, triggered nationwide protests.
But Missouri state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, who has criticized authorities over the Brown shooting, appealed for calm Wednesday morning — saying that if indeed Martin was armed, she felt Tuesday’s shooting could be different.
“While tensions are high, we need to be respectful of what the facts are, and then our actions need to follow those facts,” Chappelle-Nadal told CNN’s “New Day.”
“While we’re waiting for the facts, we need to have some calm so we know that’s going on. Not every case is the same,” she said.
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