A black teenager has been shot dead by a police officer at a gas station only a few miles from where Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri - and surveillance footage apparently shows him pointing his gun at the cop before he was killed.
The victim, named by his mother as Antonio Martin, 18, was killed at a Mobil gas station on North Hanley Road in Berkeley at about 11.15pm on Tuesday.
Toni
Martin, who has disputed the police account of the killing, was heard
crying 'that's my baby,' as she pointed towards his body under a yellow
sheet, while hundreds of people descended on the area, detonating
explosives and throwing bricks at officers in protest of police
brutality.
But speaking about the death on Wednesday morning, Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins said that the incident should not draw comparisons with the death of Michael Brown, who was unarmed and whose death was not caught on camera. Mayor Hoskins, who himself is black, added that Berkeley has a predominantly African American police force so his officers are more sensitive to race relations than officers in Ferguson.
He said that after hearing that a black teenager had been shot by a white officer last night, his first reaction was that it was another case of police brutality. But after finding out what happened, 'I can assure you that did not happen last night', he said.
'Everybody
don't die the same,' he said. 'Some people die because police initiate
it. Some people die because they initiate it. At this point, our review
indicated that the police did not initiate this.'
The unnamed police officer, a 34-year-old six-year veteran of the force, was responding to a call of a theft in the area when he pulled up to the gas station in his patrol car. He can be seen on the surveillance footage driving up to two males and climbing out of the car with a flashlight, police said.
On camera:
Surveillance footage taken outside a Mobil gas station in Berkeley,
Missouri shows a police car, top left, after the officer responded to
calls of a theft in the area. The officer got out of the car to speak to
two men and shot one of them dead
Arm
raised: 18-year-old Antonio Martin can be seen just left of the car,
behind the woman, raising a weapon towards a police officer
Heartbroken: Toni
Martin sobs after her son, Antonio Martin, was shot dead by police
officers outside a gas station in Berkeley, Missouri on Tuesday night.
She told reporters at the scene 'that's my baby'
Violence: Antonio Martin, 18, was shot dead by police at a Mobil gas station, and protests quickly erupted at the scene
Shot: The teenager, who did not fire his weapon, was shot once and was pronounced dead at the scene,
Gunned down: His
body was kept at the scene of the shooting, pictured beneath a yellow
tarp, for several hours beside a police cruiser
Removed: His body was taken away from the scene around two hours after the shooting, which authorities said was normal
The officer is now on administrative leave until he completes certain steps, such as talking to the department about the incident, Belmar said.
'This
is a tragedy for the police officer,' the chief added. 'He will carry
the weight of this for the rest of his life... There are no winners
here.'
His death comes amid racial tensions and protests against police violence across the U.S. Protests have been ongoing after a white police officer shot dead unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in broad daylight in August, and violence erupted after a grand jury ruled not to indict the officer.
Days
later, a grand jury on Staten Island, New York decided not to indict
the officer who held Eric Garner in a chokehold, leading to his death in
July.
This weekend, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley shot dead two police officers as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn after threatening to 'put wings on pigs' for the deaths of Brown and Garner. SWAT teams have now been sent to two Brooklyn NYPD precincts after receiving threats from gangs.
On
Wednesday morning, Antonio Martin's mother Toni spoke to reporters at
the scene earlier and disputed the police account of the incident.
Calm: A police cruiser sits at the Mobil station in Berkeley on Wednesday morning, hours after the body was taken away
Weapon: Police investigators found a gun at the scene of the shooting, pictured, in Berkeley, Missouri
Distraught: Toni Martin, left, the
mother of the slain teen, speaks with an investigator in the parking lot
early on Wednesday morning
Demonstrations: Police arrested four
people for assaulting police officers following disturbances after last
night's shooting in Berkeley
Clash: Police scuffled with as many as 300 protesters at the scene of last night's fatal shooting in Berkeley
Dangerous: Three explosives were detonated, police said, including one right next to a gas pump at the station
According to the St Louis Post Dispatch,
Mrs Martin said her son was walking with his girlfriend to the store
when police arrived. She claims that he was shot dead as he 'was trying
to get up and run' and said he did not have a gun
'The
police was messing with him,' she told the newspaper. 'He was trying to
get up and run. When he tried to get up and ran they started shooting
him.'
She said he son, the oldest of her four children, was 'a good young man' who 'was trying to get his life back together' and who 'had dreams or hopes'.
The
boy's father, Jerome Green, added that Martin worked at White Castle
and had recently been trying to get work through the Job Corps.
'In the last year, he was really trying to find who he was. He was ready to take the world on,' he told the Post Dispatch.
After the shooting, Toni Martin complained that police wouldn't let her 'see her baby'. She said that she had only learned about her son's death when his girlfriend came to pick her up.
Officers
secured the area surrounding Martin's body with crime scene tape and
Martin's body was kept on the parking lot overnight as the investigation
into the shooting began. He was covered by a yellow body bag beside a
police cruiser.
Martin's father told CNN that his son headed out last night to spend the night with his girlfriend.
A large group of approximately 200 to 300 people gathered at the scene of the shooting, which Chief Belmar said is not unusual after such an event. But he said it was unusual how they turned on police, and claimed that some of the protesters had brought rocks with them to throw at cops.
He said that three explosives - perhaps fireworks packed together - were detonated near the scene, including one explosion that was right near a gas pump.
As
the size of the protest grew, police deployed officers in riot gear.
Some heavily armed police with assault rifles were also spotted at the
scene.
Four
arrests were made for assaults against police officers, and at least
two officers were taken to the ER. One suffered abrasions to his face
from a brick being thrown, while the other hurt his leg as he tried to
escape an explosion, Chief Belmar said.
Orlando
Brown, 36, of nearby St. Charles was among the protesters. He said he
didn't have all the details about the shooting but said he wondered if
it was a case of police aggression.
He
said: 'I understand police officers have a job and have an obligation
to go home to their families at the end of the night. But do you have to
treat every situation with lethal force? ... It's not a racial issue,
or black or white. It's wrong or right.'
Brown
said he was pepper-sprayed during the protest as police tried to
separate him from a friend whose hand he was holding. He said his friend
was arrested for failing to disperse.
Eyewitnesses
claimed that police failed to call Martin an ambulance as he lay
mortally wounded on the ground, but Chief Belmar said that EMS arrived
on the scene and determined that the teenager was already dead.
An audio file uploaded onto Soundcloud is claimed to have an emergency call made by the officer in the aftermath of the shooting. The audio has a request for 'crowd control' but does not appear to call for an ambulance.
Some social media users suggested that Martin's gun had only appeared on the ground after the shooting.
A number of protesters draped themselves in yellow crime-scene tape while others taunted and yelled at police officers.
The
latest shooting is only about three miles from where Michael Brown was
shot dead by officer Darren Wilson in August, which caused massive
protests throughout the area and across the country.
Michael Brown's death in August led to considerable unrest in the St Louis area, which was reignited last month when a grand jury decided against indicting officer Darren Wilson, who later resigned from the Ferguson Police Department.
Berkeley
neighbours the suburb of Ferguson, where police officer Darren Wilson
shot Michael Brown on August 9, a killing that fueled criticism of the
way police and the criminal justice system treat minority groups.
Protests in Ferguson have taken place for months and spilled over into violence when a grand jury decided not to charge Wilson.
Demonstrations
in cities across the country gained in momentum when a New York grand
jury decided not to charge police over the death of Eric Garner, a
43-year-old black man who police tackled and put in a chokehold.
About 200 people marched in New York on Tuesday, defying Mayor Bill de Blasio's call for protests to be suspended after two police officers were killed in their patrol car on Saturday in an apparent revenge attack.
In Los Angeles, police said they would investigate whether any officers were involved in the singing of a song, at a party organised by a retired policeman, that poked fun at the Ferguson killing.
The
lyrics of the song, on a video posted on entertainment news website
TMZ, said: 'Michael Brown
Up to 300 protesters gathered at the scene of last night's shooting as police protected the area
Scene: Police secured the scene of the shooting, pictured, following Martin's death last night
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