A handful of witnesses have come forward disputing claims that a St. Louis area teen died of an apparent suicide.
The Huffington Post reports that family members of Amonderez Green called authorities after the 18-year-old threatened to commit suicide. According to Normandy police reports, Green fired a shot at the officer, and ignored officials’ requests to disarm himself. Officers opened fire, causing the teen to flee. After Green ran out of officers’ view, a gunshot was heard, and he was found unresponsive.
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City officials have ruled his death a suicide, but multiple witnesses say that Green was attempting to climb a fence when they saw officers shoot him in the face. A Twitter video that people claim is from the shooting appears to record a man yelling out “Don’t kill me, oh, God.”
“While he was running, he turned around to face the police, and that’s when he got shot in the face,” a witness who requested to remain anonymous told local reporters. “I saw his body drop. They shot him in the face. His whole right side of his face was gone. His top lip was gone.”
Normandy police chief Col. Frank Mininni said that the department has opened an investigation into the shooting.