Missouri cop shoots and kills 18-year-old Antonio Martin, who allegedly pointed gun at him

© AP Photo/, David Carson

Police try to control a crowd Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014, on the lot of a gas station following a shooting Tuesday in Berkeley, Mo.

A suburban St. Louis police officer shot and killed a man who pointed a gun at him at a gas station, police said.

The shooting happened around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday at a convenience store in Berkeley, Missouri, just a few miles from Ferguson, where Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, was killed by a white officer in August.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says the Berkeley shooting victim was black and the officer white.

Police were called to the gas station about a theft and as the officer questioned two men, one pointed a gun at him. The officer fired three shots. One hit the gunman.

Violent protests broke out early Wednesday between police officers and a vocal crowd of several hundred people who taunted the officers at the scene of the shooting. Two officers were injured, police cars were damaged and fire was set at a QuikTrip store. Four people were arrested.

After the police officer arrived at the store, one of the men pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer, St. Louis County police spokesman Sgt. Brian Schellman said. The officer fired several shots, fatally wounding the man. The second man fled, and the dead man's handgun has been recovered, according to Schellman.

Authorities did not immediately identify the man who was shot. But the reported that a woman at the scene, Toni Martin, said he was her son, 18-year-old Antonio Martin.

Toni Martin told the newspaper that her son was with his girlfriend at the time of the shooting.

The protesters who gathered early Wednesday milled around the gas pumps at the station, some yelling at police officers. Some wore strands of yellow police-line tape draped around their neck, with others using it as a headband.

Authorities from multiple agencies, some in riot gear, stood among the protesters.

Across the street, the glass doors of a convenience store were shattered, one of the doors left hanging from a single hinge. Police stood guard, turning people away.

The crowd dispersed but police officers remained at the scene as dawn approached.

Orlando Brown, 36, of nearby St. Charles was among the protesters. He said he didn't have all the details about the shooting but said he wondered if it was a case of police aggression.

"I understand police officers have a job and have an obligation to go home to their families at the end of the night," he said. "But do you have to treat every situation with lethal force? ... It's not a racial issue, or black or white. It's wrong or right."

Brown said he was pepper-sprayed during the protest as police tried to separate him from a friend whose hand he was holding. He said his friend was arrested for failing to disperse.

Brown's death led to weeks of protests and some looting in the St. Louis area, actions that were renewed last month when a grand jury chose not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the killing.

St. Louis County Police held a press conference about the incident Wednesday morning.

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