Jimmy Bernhard

KSDK-TV, St. Louis

ST. LOUIS — An off-duty St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officer shot and killed a man Wednesday evening in the Shaw neighborhood, near the Missouri Botanical Garden southwest of downtown.

The officer involved was off duty, in uniform, working for a security agency on a neighborhood patrol, according to Lt. Col. Alfred Adkins, assistant chief of police.

At approximately 7:30 p.m. CT, the officer encountered three men who started running after the officer exited his vehicle. The officer pursued one man, lost him, and then found him again after he jumped out from behind some bushes.

The officer approached the man and a struggle ensued. During the struggle, police say, the 18-year-old man pulled a weapon on the officer and started firing.

The officer, fearing for his safety, returned fire, fatally wounding the man. A gun was recovered from the scene.

The officer, 32, and a member of the department for six years, was not injured.

St. Louis Alderman Antonio French of the 21st Ward posted on Twitter that the victim's mother came to the scene of the shooting and fainted. "An ambulance came to attend to her," French tweeted. "There is nothing like a mother's pain at the loss of a child."

As the investigation continued, crowds gathered near the intersection of Shaw and Klemm, where the incident occurred.

On Twitter, users began using the hashtag #16shots and #shawshooting to express outrage at another police shooting. On Aug. 9, Michael Brown, an unarmed man, was shot by a police officer in nearby Ferguson, leading to violent protests.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said the incident would be reviewed by the new Force Investigative Unit, formed after the Michael Brown shooting, and findings will be turned over to the District Attorney's office for further action.

Earlier Wednesday, a man died after being shot in the chest in Ferguson. The shooting took place around 4:15 p.m. at Park Ridge Apartments off of Ferguson Avenue.

Two men were walking around the apartment complex when they heard gunshots. One of the men was struck in the chest.

Investigators said the suspects fled the scene in a car.