MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - Another African-American in his early 20s has been shot dead in St. Louis, Missouri, by an off-duty police officer, CNN reported Thursday.
According to CNN, the police officer shot the man dead when trying to make a pedestrian check in the course of his second job for a security company. But as the police officer tried to do so, the young man ran away and fired at him, forcing fire to be returned.
"Fearing for his safety, the officer returned fire striking the suspect, fatally wounding him," police spokeswoman Leah Freeman was quoted by CNN as saying.
The Wednesday incident follows the August killing of the unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was similarly shot dead in the county’s Ferguson city by police officer Darren Wilson, also white.
The incident triggered a wave of angry protests in Ferguson and all across the country. Police were criticized for using military-grade gear and heavy-handed tactics to quell the protests in Ferguson.
In mid-September, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported that police throughout the United States had killed six unarmed black men since April. The use of deadly force was deemed unjustified in the circumstances surrounding each of the six killings, it stated.
