Police said Wednesday they shot dead an African American teenager in a town near Ferguson, Missouri, where the police shooting of an unarmed black teen led to weeks of protests across the United States.
Media reports cited a St. Louis County police statement saying that the shooting took place at a gas station at 11:15 pm Tuesday in the town of Berkeley.
A spokesman for St Louis County Police Department said a police officer shot and killed a man who drew a handgun and pointed it at him as the officer approached him and another man at a gas station in the suburb of Berkeley.
The police said an investigation had begun into the incident, which occurred at 11.15pm at a Mobile petrol station, when the officer approached two male suspects.
An angry crowd has gathered at the scene.
In a statement, St Louis police said: “The Berkeley police officer exited his vehicle and approached the subjects when one of the men pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer. Fearing for his life, the Berkeley Officer fired several shots, striking the subject, fatally wounding him. The second subject fled the scene ... St. Louis County Police Detectives have recovered the deceased subject’s handgun at the scene.”
The victim has not been identified by the police, but was name locally as Antonio Martin.
The incident comes at a time of mounting tension between the police and the community in the US, after nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.
Over the weekend two New York police officers were shot dead in what was seen as as a reprisal attack after a grand jury voted not to indict an NYPD officer who killed an unarmed black man in an illegal choke hold.
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