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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Cops Say Suspect in Recent Missouri Shooting Pulled Gun

BERKELEY, Mo. (CN) - Another officer-involved shooting brought violence to north St. Louis County again on Tuesday night.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told reporters that a 34-year-old white police officer fatally shot Antonio Martin, a black 18-year-old, at a Mobil gas station in Berkeley. The police officer was responding to a theft call at the gas station and fired three shots when Martin pulled a gun on him, his department says.

The gas station had several surveillance cameras that captured the shooting. Police released one of those videos Wednesday morning.

Spurred by what Belmar called falsehoods spread on social media, hundreds of protesters gathered and looted a neighboring QuikTrip. Protesters set off an explosive device by the QuikTrip's gas pumps and set fire to the store. The fires were quickly put out, and the store was not a total loss.

Belmar said four protesters were arrested and two police officers were injured.

Berkeley is just 2 miles east of Ferguson, where the Aug. 9 police shooting of Michael Brown sparked national protests. Locally, the Brown protests were violent as well. A QuikTrip in Ferguson was completely destroyed by protesters on Aug. 10, and dozens of businesses burned in Ferguson and neighboring Dellwood when a grand jury refused on Nov. 24 to indict the police officer who shot Brown.

Berkeley, pop. 8,953, is over 81 percent black and had a median income of $34,350 in 2012, according to city-data.com.

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