Black man fatally shot by white off-duty cop in St. Louis

Black man fatally shot by white off-duty cop in St. Louis
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On Wednesday night, a white off-duty police officer working a second job as a security guard shot and killed a young black man in St. Louis, sparking an angry gathering of area residents who compared the situation to the death of Michael Brown exactly two months ago.

Following the shooting, a crowd quickly congregated at the scene, not far from the Missouri Botanical Garden. Some in attendance said they were related to the dead man, identified by the family as 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers Jr. "He was unarmed," Teyonna Meyers, a woman who said she was his cousin, told the Los Angeles Times. "He had a sandwich in his hand and they thought it was a gun."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.