A knife-wielding man was shot to death Tuesday after allegedly shoplifting from a St. Louis convenience store. The incident took place just 2.6 miles from the protests in Ferguson.
According to local news reports, the 23-year-old suspect entered the store and stole two energy drinks, left the store, and returned to take a pastry.
The store owner followed the man from the store and police were called.
KMOV.com quotes police as saying that whens officers arrived, the man was acting erratically, yelling at officers, "Shoot me now, kill me now."
Fox2now.com reports that the man was warned repeatedly by the two officers on the scene to drop his knife, but he refused, instead charging at the officers. Both officers then shot the man, and he was pronounced dead on the scene.
Police Chief Sam Dotson told Fox 2 that the man was two or three feet from the officers in an attack posture when he was shot. The officers were not injured.
Asked about the incident by KMOV, Dotson said police officers have a right to defend themselves.
The incident occurred about 1 p.m. Central Time.
KMOV reported that a crowd had assembled at the site and, "There is apparently a lot of yelling."
Fox News Channel's Mike Tobin, covering the nearby Ferguson protests, said people had heard of the shooting and expressed concern.
The Ferguson protests are based on a police shooting Aug. 9 when a black unarmed 18-year-old, Michael Brown, was killed by white police officer Darren Wilson, sparking riots, continued unrest, and concerns about race relations in the St. Louis suburb.
About 70 percent of Ferguson's population is black, but only three of the police department's 53 officers are black.
Some witnesses say Brown was holding up his hands in surrender, yelling "Don't shoot," when he was shot multiple times, twice in the head. Others, including the officer's account, say Brown charged at Wilson and grabbed for his gun before the shots were fired.
Like the latest case in St. Louis, Brown had allegedly stolen items from a convenience store moments before his killing — a handful of cigars, according to surveillance video.
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