In a press conference held Tuesday, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said that 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers Jr., shot and killed by a police officer in the south St. Louis neighborhood of Shaw October 8, had gunshot residue on his hand, the inner waistband of his jeans, and on his T-shirt. Police had earlier announced they had recovered a 9mm handgun, reported stolen on September 26, at the scene of the shooting.
KSDK reports further on a previous run-in between Myers and the police which led to a house arrest:
The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office released documents detailing Myers’ previous run-ins with law enforcement. He was charged over the summer with unlawful use of a weapon and resisting or interfering with an arrest/detention/stop.
The probable cause statement said Myers was a passenger in a vehicle that led police on a high-speed chase in the early morning hours of June 27 and crashed in the 1100 block of S. Grand Boulevard. The documents state Myers got out of the vehicle and started to run when an officer yelled at him to stop.
The documents allege Myers took out a loaded semi-automatic pistol he had concealed and threw it in a sewage drain. He was taken into custody a short time later.
Witnesses at the Shaw shooting have insisted that Myers was unarmed and that the police officer mistook a sandwich for a gun.
Ebony senior digital editor Jamilah Lemieux says she has no reason to believe the latest police report, a sentiment shared by some of her followers.
This next tweet earned a retweet from Lemieux.
