Berkeley, MO – The mayor of Berkeley, Missouri, says the city will thoroughly investigate the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer. But Mayor Theodore Hoskins says comparisons to the Michael Brown case in Ferguson are unfair.
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Hoskins spoke at a news conference Wednesday, hours after the shooting Tuesday night at a convenience store in Berkeley.
Berkeley, which is 82 percent black, is in north St. Louis County, next to Ferguson, where a white police officer killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, in August.
Hoskins says the situations are different. He noted that surveillance footage shows the Berkeley 18-year-old pointed a gun at the officer who shot him. Also, Ferguson has a largely white police force, but the majority of police officers in Berkeley are black.
Anyone pointing a gun at police officers should be shot. If we do not empower our law enforcement to do this, the entire concept of police becomes meaningless. This is not a racial thing. I haven’t a care if the criminal aiming at cops is white. Eliminate him.
Wow look at this a Mayor with a backbone, wish we had one of those.
Reply to 2 he was probably afraid a chokehold would cause a riot
Do we need to justify every police shooting? These guys are the exact same animals as Brown.
No matter what the video shows some will always protest. Perhaps this death should serve as a warning to those who point guns at cops that they’re asking to be shot and probably killed. Why don’t those who want to protest – protest the killings of young Blacks by gun toting younmg Blacks?