Forensic evidence indicates that the teenager shot at 17 times by an off-duty St. Louis cop fired a gun before his death, according to police and union officials.
The findings came Tuesday after gunshot residue tests and ballistics evidence were analyzed by forensic scientists from the Missouri Highway Patrol crime lab. The police department released a statement saying gunshot residue was found on Vonderrit Myers’ hands, shirt, pockets of his jeans, and inside his waistband. Police add that while residue can be present on anyone near a shooting, the forensic results indicate the 18-year-old was the shooter.
Police also say ballistic evidence proves Myers was a shooter in the incident, although they could not match a round that pierced a car behind the officer with the gun they say is the teenager’s.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Ballistics evidence also revealed three bullets that hit the ground where the officer was trying to take cover matched Myers’ gun. A round that pierced a car behind the officer was too badly damaged to be able to match it to Myers’ gun; however, it did not match the type of bullets the officer fired, police said.
Those three bullets, police say, are the ones Myers fired before the officer, who has yet to be identified, shot at the teenager 17 times, hitting him six to seven times.
Myers died from a gunshot wound to the face.
The St. Louis Police Officers’ Association called a press conference Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the department released the gunshot residue findings.
Jeff Roorda, business manager for the association, said that police shooting cases are being tried “in the court of public opinion” and “we think there ought to be evidence presented” in that court.
“We’re done, as a police union, standing in the shadows in these cases,” Roorda said. Along with the gunshot residue results, Roorda and association president Joe Steiger mentioned photos circulating on social media showing Myers with guns and a prior arrest in St. Louis County in a shooting case.
But those pictures, according to the Myers family members, aren’t an accurate depiction of the 18-year-old.
Jerryl Christmas, one of the lawyers representing the Myers family, identified Myers in the picture but said that the family believed those pictures to be at least a year old. He said that “young people do a lot of things on social media that they should not” and said that the pictures were not proof that Myers had a gun on the night in question.
Christmas said the family wanted a “full and fair” investigation by an outside agency, and did not want to discuss “evidence in a vacuum.”
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said she would cross deputize an assistant U.S. attorney to assist with the investigation.
We’ll keep you updated with the latest.
SOURCE: STL Post-Dispatch | PHOTO CREDIT: Instagram
