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 Thursday's vigil was peaceful following a night of unrest on
Wednesday, when officers reported they had been targeted with bricks
and bottles and used tear gas to disperse angry crowds, said a St.
Louis Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman.
St. Louis Alderman Antonio French posted images on his Twitter page
of people at the vigil holding candles, hugging and making buttons
that call for unity in the community.
Wednesday's shooting came less than two weeks after the St. Louis
area was flooded with protesters from around the country marking the
anniversary of the Aug. 9, 2014, police killing of unarmed black
teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson,
Missouri.
Brown's death was one of a series of police killings of unarmed
black men and teens across the United States that sparked a newly
energized civil rights movement under the banner "Black Lives
Matter".
 St. Louis police said the officers involved in the latest shooting
used their service weapons after 18-year-old Mansur Ball-Bey pointed
a gun at them. Ball-Bey was struck four times and killed, police
said.
The officers were serving a search warrant in a crime-ridden
neighborhood when they saw two young black men flee the house, and a
short chase ensued, police said.
The gun Ball-Bey pointed at officers was one of several stolen
firearms recovered at the scene, along with crack cocaine, said St.
Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson.
French said protests that broke out as word of the shooting spread
had been driven partly by talk that the teen killed was only 13.
Small groups often stage peaceful demonstrations nightly in Ferguson
but others, not part of organized groups, can be unpredictable, he
said.
"There was a lot of misinformation out there. Many arrived angry
because they heard a 13-year-old kid was killed," said French, a
prominent voice in the community who regularly posts information
about demonstrations on his social media feeds.
Mistrust of police accounts of Wednesday's shooting also helped
stoke the unrest.
Some protesters expressed doubt over the police account of Ball-Bey
pointing a gun. St. Louis police do not wear body cameras, but St.
Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said some officers videotaped the
protests, during which shots were heard.
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Dotson said a car was torched, some businesses reported robbery
attempts and nine people were arrested.
Debate over largely white police treatment of minorities has become
a hot-button political and social issue in America.
Republican senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio said on
Thursday the issue cannot be ignored.
"It’s a reality that in many communities in this country the
relationship between minority communities and the police and law
enforcement agencies is terrible," Rubio told the Detroit Economic
Club.
Police need to do more to allow for peaceful protests rather than
escalate them into violence, said Amnesty International USA senior
campaigner Jamira Burley, who was critical of the actions taken by
St. Louis police on Wednesday.
Ferguson and St. Louis County police came under heavy criticism for
their handling of the Ferguson protests, which included use of riot
gear, tear gas and heavy armored vehicles, tactics many in the
community said only inflamed tensions.
Images of heavily armed police aiming weapons at citizens prompted
U.S. President Barack Obama to tighten restrictions on police use of
military equipment.
(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Carey Gillam in Kansas City
and Victoria Cavaliere in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Ben
Klayman in Detroit; Editing by James Dalgleish and Paul Tait)
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