MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - One man is dead while another is in hospital following a shooting at 1 a.m. local time (06:00 GMT) in north St. Louis, Missouri, Fox 2 reported Tuesday.
Homicide detectives claim at least 26 shots were fired by two suspected gunmen at the victims who were seated in a van, Fox 2 reported. One victim who was shot in the leg is in stable condition while the other was killed.
Police do not have any suspects in custody at this point, the newspaper reported.
The incident follows the fatal shooting of Vonderrit Myers, an 18-year-old African-American man, by a 32-year-old white off-duty police officer last Wednesday. The shooting sparked a wave of protests during the weekend.
Last Saturday, about a thousand people gathered near a police station in Ferguson to protest what they view as a series of racially motivated shootings of African-Americans by white police officers in the region.
The shooting took place just two months after Michael Brown, another African-American teenager of the same age, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson. The shooting led to massive protests, which forced Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to issue a state of emergency in the city.
Overall, the murder rate has increased by some 30 percent in St. Louis compared to this time in 2013. Through August of 2014, homicides totaled 85, compared with 70 at this time in 2013 and 81 in 2012. Over 100 people have been killed as victims of homicide in the city this year.
