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11/21/2024 08:50:28 pm

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Berkeley Mayor Appeals For Calm After Christmas Eve Shooting Of Another Black Teen

Memorial to Antonio Martin

(Photo : REUTERS/Aaron P Bernstein) A memorial to Antonio Martin, an armed man fatally shot by police late on Tuesday, is seen in Berkeley, Missouri December 25, 2014.

To avert another round of violent protests after another black teen was shot by a white police officer, Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins appealed to residents in Wednesday night to keep calm.

Mayor Hoskins pointed out that the Tuesday night shooting of 18-year-old Antonio Martin is different from that of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson because there were three videos of the incident clearly showing that it was the teen who pointed the gun first at the white cop, reports the Independent.

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As proof that it was Martin who poked first the gun at an officer in a gas station parking lot in Berkeley, the St. Louis Police released three videos posted on YouTube that showed the incident taken from three angles.


"We reviewed the video and it appears that there was a gun pointed at the officer before the officer fired," CNN quotes the mayor as saying.

According to Country Police chief Jon Belmar, the 34-year-old officer was questioning Martin and another man about a convenience store theft when the teen pulled his handgun.

The video showed two men leave the store just as the police car arrived. About 90 seconds after the cops approached the two youth, Martin pulled out his 9m handgun, which later investigation showed had one round in its chamber and five more in the magazine.

Unfortunately for the cop, who has been with the service for six years, he did not wear his body camera and his dashboard camera was also off, based on the police vehicle's emergency lights which were also closed.

Although Berkeley and the St. Louis County police are still probing the incident, in Belmar's opinion, the police officer involved "will carry the weight of this for the rest of his life."

Martin's shooting is the third of a black suspect in the St. Louis area since the shooting of Brown. All three incidents led to protests.

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