St. Louis Shooting: Protest Against Vonderrit Myers Killing By Cop Stops Traffic In Shaw Neighborhood

Traffic in St. Louis’s Shaw neighborhood came to a standstill on Thursday after demonstrators protesting the shooting of a black teen killed by a white off-duty policeman blocked streets in the city’s Shaw neighborhood. The shooting Wednesday of Vonderritt Myers Jr. came two months after the shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. While Brown was unarmed, authorities claimed Myers had a gun and shot at the off-duty officer before the cop retaliated with fatal gunfire.

Thursday marked the second day protests erupted in St. Louis. Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery said St. Louis police officers used different tactics in overseeing the protests than the authorities in Ferguson, who came under criticism for using tear gas, rubber bullets and other methods to disperse protesters:

St. Louis police said the officer involved in the Myers shooting, who was working a second job at a security firm at the time, noticed Myers fleeing the area when Myers turned and shot at the off-duty cop.

“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 department tweeted Wednesday.

But Myers’ family gave a different version, saying the teen was unarmed.

“He had a sandwich in his hand, and they thought it was a gun. It’s like Michael Brown all over again,” Teyonna Myers, a 23-year-old cousin of Myers, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The protests in support of Myers came two months after intense demonstrations against the shooting of Brown. The Ferguson teen was unarmed when St. Louis Police Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot him. Accounts of the shooting differ, with authorities saying Brown reached for Wilson’s gun and his family and several witnesses saying he had his hands up in surrender when the cop fired.