ST. LOUIS (AP) – St. Louis’ prosecutor says she won’t be charging two officers in the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old last year, concluding that no evidence disproves police claims of self-defense.
Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce announced her findings Thursday in the August 2015 death of Mansur Ball-Bey. She called the case “a tragedy in every aspect of the word.”
Joyce says the officers and a witness reported that an armed Ball-Bey ran from a home during a raid and was shot after pointing his gun toward an officer. Joyce says Ball-Bey’s loaded gun was found at the scene.
An attorney for Ball-Bey’s family has questioned the police account that Ball-Bey was armed.
Ball-Bey’s death came a little more than a year after the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, Missouri.