*An autopsy shows that a black man killed in a shooting by St. Louis police on Wednesday died from a gunshot wound in the back, the city’s police department said Friday.
Police claim Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, pointed a gun at them before officers opened fire — an account disputed by his family’s attorney, according to CNN. Chief of Police Sam Dotson argued that the wound’s location doesn’t confirm or disprove the officers’ account that Ball-Bey pointed a gun at them first, according to a report Friday by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Just because he was shot in the back doesn’t mean he was running away,” Dotson said, according to the Post-Dispatch. “It could be, and I’m not saying that it doesn’t mean that. I just don’t know yet.”
Wednesday’s shooting sparked a fresh round of demonstrations that night, with protesters throwing bricks and bottles at officers, and people setting a car on fire and burglarizing businesses, according to police. [See below.]
The two officers involved in Wednesday’s shooting were placed on administrative leave, per police policy. The autopsy findings will be included in an investigative report to city and federal prosecutors, who will decide whether charges will be filed in the case, police said.
CNN details the shooting:
Police said officers were carrying out a search warrant in north St. Louis on Wednesday when two men ran out of the back of a house.
“Officers in the rear alley ordered them to stop and to drop the gun. As they ran, (Ball-Bey) turned and pointed the gun at the officers. There were two officers in the alley. Both officers fired,” Dotson told reporters.
Ball-Bey, who police said did not fire a shot, was struck and pronounced dead at the scene near the intersection of Walton Avenue and Page Boulevard.
Police say they recovered the gun that they say Ball-Bey had.
An attorney for Ball-Bey’s family, Jermaine Wooten, contends that the teen didn’t have a gun, citing what he says were accounts from witnesses.
“Speaking with every witness on the scene, no one confirms he had the gun. Everyone said just the opposite — he did not have a gun,” Wooten said.
Wooten said he understood that DNA tests were being performed on the weapon that police say Ball-Bey had, but that results had not been returned by Friday morning.
The second person who ran from the house remains on the loose. Other people who had been in the house were taken into custody, the chief said.
Officers recovered three other guns, including one inside the raided home and two that were tossed over a fence as the suspects were running, according to Dotson. Three of the four recovered weapons were stolen, he said.
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