25 Dec 2014

Berkeley shooting ‘was not like Ferguson’

The shooting of a black teenager in Berkeley should not be compared to the controversial death of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, says the town’s mayor, after police confronted more fierce rioting.

Black officials in the US state of Missouri have been at pains to highlight differences between the killing of a black teenager by police in Berkeley and cases involving unarmed black suspects.

Hundreds of people rushed to a petrol station in Berkeley on Tuesday where police had killed an 18-year-old black man, named locally as Antonio Martin.

The killing sparked violence reminiscent of the riots that followed the police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown in August in Ferguson, two miles from Berkeley – and which reignited when a grand jury decided not to indict a white officer for Brown’s killing.

Commenting on the Berkeley shooting, St Louis County Police said the black suspect pulled out a handgun.

“The Berkeley police officer exited his vehicle and approached the subjects when one of the men pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer,” police said.

“Fearing for his life, the Berkeley officer fired several shots, striking the subject, fatally wounding him. The second subject fled the scene.”

Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins said: “This is not a policeman in the city of Berkeley going out half-cocked.

“You could not even compare this with Ferguson.”

About 50 officers confronted a crowd of 200 to 300 people who gathered after the shooting. Bricks and fireworks were thrown.

Two officers were injured and four people were arrested for assault before the area returned to calm.

The shooting occurred three days after a man in New York shot two police officers at point blank range in their patrol car – apparently in revenge at the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, who died after an officer used a controversial chokehold on him.

The deaths of Brown and Garner sparked global protests at the treatment of black suspects by white police officers.