Police department says suspect opened fire after being ordered to stop but other accounts say he only had a sandwich

A St Louis city police officer shot and killed a young male suspect on Wednesday, authorities said, bringing new tension as protests continue over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in August.

The officer had attempted to stop the fleeing suspect, the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department said on Twitter. During the chase on foot the suspect turned and fired at the officer, who returned fire and fatally wounded him, the force said.

St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) The officer was not injured. A gun was recovered from the scene. The investigation is ongoing.

The officer was not hurt and a gun was recovered from the scene, police said.

The St Louis metropolitan police chief, Sam Dotson, said the officer was on patrol for a private security company late Wednesday when he engaged three men in a chase.

Dotson said the men ran away when they spotted the officer, who believed one of them was carrying a gun because of the way he was running. The officer chased the man, an altercation ensued and the man fired at the officer, the police chief said. The officer returned fire and killed the man,

According to Dotson, ballistics evidence recovered from the scene suggested the teenager fired three shots. The officer returned fire with 17 rounds. Dotson was unable to say why the officer fired so may shots.

In a later statement, police said Myers’s 9mm handgun was recovered from the scene and had been reported stolen on 26 September, rebutting claims from relatives who said Myers was only holding a sandwich.

Police spokeswoman Leah Freeman told CNN said the officer had been off-duty and working an approved second job when he attempted to stop Myers for a “pedestrian check”. He had been wearing his police uniform.

The Post-Dispatch reported that dozens of protesters assembled at the scene afterwards in south St Louis, within miles of the city of Ferguson, which has been racked by near-nightly protests following the fatal 9 August shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson.



Reuters contributed to this report