ST. LOUIS — A 16-year-old boy killed by police last fall at a north St. Louis gas station was shot 18 times, according to the teenager's autopsy report.
Darryl Ross was shot and killed by two drug enforcement detectives late Sept. 11 outside the Shell gas station at North Florissant and St. Louis avenues in the city's Old North St. Louis neighborhood.
The autopsy report, obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday, reveals for the first time information about Darryl's death investigation, including that he was shot 14 times in his torso, three times in his right arm and once in his left thigh.
The autopsy also showed at least 10 of those shots were fired from behind the teenager and THC was the only substance in his system when he died.
Anastasia Syes, an advocate and spokesperson for Darryl’s family, said Thursday that 18 shots were excessive, and she and the family want the officers put on unpaid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.
"It’s a lot for any family to lose a child that young," Syes said. "And then to lose a child that dramatically, by the hands of the people who are supposed to protect and serve and be trained to handle things."
The Police Department would not confirm if the officers are on leave. Mayor Tishaura O. Jones' office also did not provide comment.
Timothy Maher, a criminologist and professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said police are generally trained to remove a threat by whatever means necessary, and determining whether officers responded properly depends on "the specific factors and threat that existed at that given time, based on the trained police officers' perspective."
Police and family members had contradicting recollections of what happened prior to the shooting that killed Darryl, but they agreed he was armed and running away when two police detectives chased him across the front of the store before shooting him.
The undercover officers were not wearing body cameras, but the shooting was captured by several surveillance cameras outside the gas station. Soundless surveillance video footage was played for members of the media but not released publicly.
Darryl's family released a portion of the footage themselves a little over a week after the shooting.
The video showed Darryl arriving at the gas station just after 11 p.m. and having several interactions that police described as drug deals. Officers had not mentioned a drug deal in their initial incident reports, instead saying they went to the gas station because of several people with guns.
Darryl's mother, Jukita Johnson, said she was at the gas station with her son and that he was at the store to buy chicken tenders.
Two undercover police cars pulled up next to Darryl and one officer, wearing a vest marked with POLICE, got out of the car and pointed a gun at the teen, who then ran away, according to the surveillance footage.
Darryl tripped in front of the store, and the video showed him reaching for something that had fallen to the ground. Officers then opened fire.
Johnson was near her son when he was killed, and she was shown on video distraught after the shooting.
The teenager’s family disputed that Darryl had reached for his gun and that officers identified themselves.
This shooting was the latest incident at that Shell station, often referred to by residents as the “Shoot ’em up Shell.”
The city named it a public nuisance and accused it of maintaining a haven for criminal activity. Complaints from neighbors about drug dealing and violent crime at the gas station have mounted for years.
City Hall in November ordered the notorious north St. Louis gas station shut down and boarded up for a year, calling it a threat to the safety and welfare of nearby residents. The business appealed. Those cases are pending.
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