‘18 gunshot wounds:’ Autopsy reveals St. Louis city police shot teen 18 times
By Melanie Johnson
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ST. LOUIS, Missouri (KMOV) — News 4 has become the first to obtain the autopsy report of the St. Louis City teen shot and killed by police in September.
According to the report, the medical examiner discovered 18 gunshot wounds in the body of 16-year-old Darryl Ross.
“The autopsy spells it all out for itself. It’s in black and white,” says family spokesperson, Anastasia Syes. “They have enough shots fired according to this report with him still alive that they could have apprehended him. They did not need to keep shooting.”
Before now, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) has refused to answer how many times Ross was shot or how many shots the two responding officers fired. Former federal prosecutor and St. Charles County Judge, John Davis, tells News 4 the split-second decision came down to training.
“Their training is shoot until a threat is over and it’s center mass. It’s not shoot him in the ankle, or shoot a warning shot over their head or something,” he says. “18 bullets, obviously that’s excessive.”
The fatal shooting happened on September 11 just after 11:30 p.m. at the Shell gas station at the intersection of North Florissant and St. Louis Avenue.
Citing an ongoing investigation, authorities have also refused to release the full 9-minute surveillance video which caught the confrontation and fatal shooting.
However, Davis says the officers may have violated the Ross’ civil rights.
“It’s definitely excessive force,” says Syes. “In this report, I see over 18 shots on the body of a 16-year-old kid that was not an intimate danger to police and running from them.”
SLMPD says Ross was selling drugs when two undercover officers attempted to pursue him, and he resisted arrest by running.
In the short clip of surveillance video released by Ross’ family, the 16-year-old can be seen running and then reaching for an object that police say was a loaded gun.
“He ran. What we are trained to do is yell ‘police! stop!’ and he kept going,” SLMPD’s Lt. John Green told News 4 in September.
Darryl Ross’ family tells News 4 that, in their opinion, he was executed by police in an act of overkill.
“He was murdered by the police,” says Syes. “The point is he didn’t pull the gun on the police. He didn’t shoot or even aim towards pulling the gun on the police.”
The city’s Office of Public Safety released this statement to News 4 on Thursday:
“The Force Investigation Unit’s investigation into this incident is ongoing. Once the report is complete, it will be referred to the Circuit Attorney’s Office.”
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