A Black teenager was shot and killed by undercover cops on Sunday night at the Shell gas station in Old North St. Louis.
St. Louis City Police said two of their drug detectives, reportedly wearing vests marked "POLICE," approached the gas station in an unmarked car when 16-year-old Darryl Ross quickly walked off into an alley.
Attempting to get away, Ross tripped over a curb and dropped a pistol he had on him. As the detectives caught up, they claim he reached for the pistol, then both officers opened fire.
Ross later died in the hospital. Neither of the officers was injured.
Janessa Logan, the teenager's aunt, told KMOX that she doesn't know if her nephew was in fact carrying a gun, but either way she wishes the police had handled the situation differently.
"I do believe that excessive force did not have to be used. There are some kids that don't deserve that," she said. "I understand a police officer's point of view, I understand that if they feel that they cannot wait a second because in those two seconds their life can be taken. I understand that. But there are certain kids that aren't like that."
Logan said her nephew was from a good family, and was a good student, and that if he did have a gun, it was probably for his own protection because of crime in the neighborhood.
Logan also said she wondered if Ross knew that it was the police chasing him.
"You pull in the lot and you're in the undercover car and your lights are off and all of that, immediately what the people are thinking on the lot is, 'Somebody's about to shoot at us.' That's what's gonna go through their head first," she said. "It's not gonna be, 'Oh that's the police, let's run,' they think somebody's about to shoot at them because they've been attacked up here several times."
The case has been turned over to the Force Investigation Unit. Mayor Tishaura Jones wants the police department to release body camera footage.
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