Update as of 4:45 a.m. EDT: The chief of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department outlined the events that led to a teenager being shot dead by an off-duty officer in the city Wednesday evening.

Sam Dotson said that the 32-year-old officer was patrolling the Shaw neighborhood for a private security company Wednesday when he saw three men who ran when they saw him, according to CBS News. After the officer pursued the men, he got into a physical confrontation with one of them, resulting in the man firing at the officer, who returned fire, killing the suspect. According to police, the suspect's gun reportedly jammed.

Dotson was quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as saying that the officer had fired 17 times, but did not confirm the number of times that the teenager was hit. Donaldson also told reporters that the teenager was "no stranger to law enforcement."

Update as of 02:45 a.m. EDT: Sam Dotson, the Chief of Police for the Metropolitan Police Department of St. Louis, said that ballistics showed that the suspect fired at least three rounds at the officer who subsequently shot him, according to a report from KSDK St Louis.

Orginal story below:

Protesters attacked police vehicles in St. Louis after an officer-involved shooting in the city Wednesday night. However, accounts of the circumstances of the shooting differ.

St. Louis police tweeted: “Officer working secondary [second job] in the 4100 block of Shaw attempted a pedestrian check when suspect fled on foot. Officer pursued suspect... Suspect turned and fired at officer. Fearing for his safety, officer returned fire striking the suspect, fatally wounding him... The officer was not injured. A gun was recovered from the scene. The investigation is ongoing.” The officer was off-duty at the time of the shooting.

The dead man was identified by some media reports as Vonderrick Myers Jr., 18, while other reports called him Vonderrit Myers Jr. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that dozens of residents and relatives of the dead man's family had gathered at the scene, claiming that Myers was unjustly killed.

Teyonna Myers, 23, of Florissant, told the Post-Dispatch that Myers was her cousin. “He was unarmed,” she said. “He had a sandwich in his hand, and they thought it was a gun. It’s like Michael Brown all over again.”

David Carson, a photographer with the Post-Dispatch on the scene, earlier said that a crowd of more than 100 people had gathered. He subsequently tweeted that protesters were “chanting and banging on cars,” and that a police SUV had been damaged.

Carson also described hearing gunshots “very close” to the scene of the shooting.

St. Louis Public Radio's Rachel Lippmann also tweeted that Sam Dotson, chief of the St. Louis police department and a state senator, had arrived on the scene.

A video shot by reporter Andy Barker shows angry protesters pushing police back down the street.

Tensions between local police and the African American community in Missouri have been high since the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson in August. A federal civil-rights investigation and grand jury hearings into the shooting are currently taking place.

This is a developing story. Check back for further updates.

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