Police try to control a crowd Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014, on the lot of a gas station following a shooting Tuesday in Berkeley, Mo. St. Louis County police say a man who pulled a gun and pointed it at an officer has been killed. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson)
BERKELEY, Mo. (AP) — A suburban St. Louis police officer shot and killed a man who pointed a gun at him at a gas station late Tuesday, police said.
A crowd of about 100 people were gathered early Wednesday at the scene in Berkeley, Missouri, a few miles from Ferguson, where a white police officer fatally shot black 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.
According to a statement from St. Louis County police spokesman Sgt. Brian Schellman, a Berkeley police officer was conducting a routine business check at a gas station around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday when he saw two men and approached them.
One of the men pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer, Schellman said. The officer fired several shots, striking and fatally wounding the man.
The second man fled, and the dead man’s handgun has been recovered, according to Schellman.
The St. Louis County Police Department is handling the investigation, and no further details about the incident were immediately available.
Authorities did not immediately identify the man who was shot, although the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a woman at the scene said he was her son, 18-year-old Antonio Martin.
Toni Martin told the newspaper that her son was with his girlfriend at the time of the shooting.
The protesters who gathered early Wednesday milled around the gas pumps at the station, some taunting and yelling at police officers.
Some had strands of yellow police-line tape draped around their neck, with others using it as a headband.
Authorities from multiple agencies, some in riot gear, stood among the protesters.
Brown’s death led to weeks of protests and some looting in the St. Louis area, actions that were renewed last month when a grand jury chose not to indict Officer Darren Wilson.
