Darryl Ross, 16, was fatally shot by police officers in St. Louis, who claimed that the Black teenager was reaching for a gun. Ross was killed just after 11:30 p.m. on September 11 at a gas station on the city's north side. According to a police incident report, one of the officers involved in the shooting was white, and the other was Black.
St. Louis' new Force Investigation Unit, established just last month, is handling the investigation of Ross' shooting, according to NBC News. Police said that two drug enforcement detectives spotted several people with weapons at the service station and drove to the parking lot.
St. Louis cops were in plain clothes
The cops' car was unmarked, and the officers were in plain clothes, but they were wearing black, bulletproof vests with the word "POLICE" written on the back and front.
The police report further stated Ross walked away and quickly went into an alley. He was armed with a gun. The detectives followed him and announced they were police officers. Ross ran, tripped, and dropped the pistol.
As the detectives approached Ross, he reached for the pistol, prompting the police officers to shoot him, according to the Independent. They took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Both officers were unhurt in the incident.
It was the second fatal police shooting in St. Louis in less than a week. Police officers killed a 61-year-old man at an apartment complex on September 7. Cops said a man who had been evicted engaged St. Louis police in a standoff. The man charged them with a butcher knife when officers entered the building, forcing several cops to open fire at him.
Division of Civilian Oversight created
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones signed legislation in August, creating a Division of Civilian Oversight. It is an independent agency designed to investigate allegations of use of force incidents and police misconduct. Under this new law, a Force Investigation Unit investigates under the direction of the circuit attorney, according to the New York Daily News.
The St. Louis region drew scrutiny from the national media for officer-involved shootings of young Black men that happened in the wake of Michael Brown's death in August 2014 in the St. Louis County town of Ferguson.
Brown, 18 years old at the time of his death, was killed during a street confrontation with Officer Darren Wilson. The police officer was cleared of wrongdoing, but the shooting of Brown led to months of often-violent protests.
