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

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."

A St. Louis police spokeswoman, Schron Jackson, told the Times the officer was performing a "pedestrian check" when the man who was shot began to run away. The officer chased him, and the man allegedly fired his gun at the officer. At that point, the officer fired back, and the suspect was hit. The officer was not injured.

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