Vonderrit Myers, 18, shot by officer in St. Louis

"Black Lives Matter" #vonderritmyers #shawshooting pic.twitter.com/snOQ68oHPg
— Vernon Mitchell, Jr. (@vcmitchelljr) October 9, 2014

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Another round of protests broke out in St. Louis Wednesday night following the fatal shooting of teen Vonderrit Myers Jr. by an off-duty police officer.

Angered demonstrators damaged police cars and clashed with officers as others chanted "Black lives matter."

Witnesses reported hearing at least two rounds of gunshots in the hours following Myers' death, at times scattering the crowd that peaked at around 300 people.

At a press conference after midnight, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson sought to alleviate the mounting tension as he revealed the official details of the incident.

Dotson said Myers, 18, had charged the off-duty officer, firing three shots and stopping when his gun jammed. The officer fired 17 times, Dotson said, adding that it was not yet known how many times Myers was struck.

He said a 9mm Ruger was recovered from the scene.

"The officer was giving verbal commands, telling them to stop, telling them how to surrender, telling them that they were under arrest," Dotson described. "The suspect continued to come towards the officer until they got into a physical altercation."

"He wanted to be certain that it was a gun and did not fire at that point. The suspect pointed the gun at the officer and fired at least three rounds at the police officer. We believe this to be true because there are three projectiles that we recovered with trajectories going towards the officer, down the hill, and one piece of ballistic evidence located behind the officer. At that point, the officer returned fire. As the officer moved towards the suspect, the suspect continued to pull the trigger on his gun."

Myers, who was not identified by Dotson but by his family, was "no stranger to law enforcement," the police chief said.

He was scheduled for a November trial for a June 27 incident in which he was charged of unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. Myers was a passenger in a car involved in a high speed chase, and after the car crashed, police caught up with him and recovered a loaded .380-caliber pistol.

Despite Dotson's attempt at transparency, Myers' family said they did not believe the teen was armed, nor that he shot at the officer.

"My nephew was coming out of a store from purchasing a sandwich," said Jackie Williams, who said he was Myers' uncle and that the teen lived with him. "Security was supposedly searching for someone else. They Tased him."

"I don't know how this happened, but they went off and shot him 16 times," he said. "That's outright murder."

A police spokeswoman said the officer did not have a Taser.

Echoes of the Aug. 9 shooting were unmistakeable, at least in the eyes of the restive crowd.

"He was unarmed," said Teyonna Myers, a cousin. "He had a sandwich in his hand, and they thought it was a gun. It's like Michael Brown all over again."

Cameron Ming, 21, was with Myers Wednesday night, and is speaking to police. His father, Ronnie Sparks, blamed the officer for harassing the younger men.

"They have been harassing him all day like they do all the time, pulling him over, stopping him," Sparks said of his son. "That's how it is. They harass the kids in the neighborhood. Our kids walk around in their own neighborhood and get harassed for it."