Another Man Was Shot And Killed By Police Officers Near Ferguson, Missouri Today

At around 12:20 pm this afternoon, police officers in St. Louis shot a 23-year-old African-American male who was brandishing a knife. Police say the man was acting erratically screaming “shoot me, kill me.” As if things couldn’t get more tense, the incident occurred about a mile outside of Ferguson. A news conference was held at 3pm by police chief Sam Dotson.

So, just to recap:

-The man stole two energy drinks from a convenience store
-He came back and stole pastries of some kind
-He threw the the food (?) into the street
-A business owner who is also an alderman called police
-Police arrived at the scene as the man clutched something at his waistband
-The man pulled out a knife, screamed “shoot me now, kill me now” and came towards police
-Police asked the man to drop the knife
-The man came within 3-4 feet of the officers and they fired on him
-He was killed (and it appears it was immediately)
-There were several witnesses to the shooting

The tail end of the news conference contains questions from the press, the first of which addresses the use of deadly force—“are your men armed with tasers?” Chief Dotson’s response was straightforward: “Officer safety is the number one issue. So if you’re the family of the police officer and someone approaches you with a knife, you have the right to protect yourself…an officer has an expectation of going home at the end of the night.”

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