Two St. Louis area police shootings are alike, and not

ST. LOUIS • Michael Brown and Kajieme Powell were killed by police about 10 days and 2½ miles apart.

Both were within walking distance of their grandmothers’ homes, police say. Both allegedly shoplifted from convenience stores before encountering officers on the street about noon. Both were shot multiple times.

In both cases, black men were killed by white officers.

But Brown’s death has drawn two weeks of protests, while tension over Powell’s seemed to ease quickly — presumably because he was carrying a weapon and the whole incident was recorded on video.

There is no dispute that Brown, 18, was unarmed in a confrontation with an officer on the street outside a Ferguson apartment complex at 2947 Canfield Drive on Aug 9. Police said there was a struggle and a shooting, but in the two weeks since have provided no detailed explanation. Some witnesses say Brown was killed while trying to surrender.

Powell, 25, was pacing and muttering outside the Six Stars Market, 8701 Riverview Boulevard, in St. Louis on Tuesday, police say. Witnesses saw he had a knife and called for help. After two officers rolled up, Powell held a steak knife and approached, urging them to shoot, according to police and a bystander’s video. Each officer fired six shots.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, pledging transparency, released the video and 911 calls to reporters.

A witness to Powell’s shooting says police had no choice. But his grandmother says they were too quick to shoot.

Powell fell in front of a barbershop next to the market. Eddie Flowers, whose daughter, Alderman Dionne Flowers, runs the business, said he watched the whole thing through the front window.

“They made the right move,” Eddie Flowers said. “The man was agitated and animated. He said, ‘Kill me!’ They didn’t have any alternative.”

But the grandmother, Mildred Powell, 70, said Friday, “They murdered him, plain and simple.” She said, “They had Tasers. They could have used them.”

Though there are only about 240 Tasers available to the 1,300 officers, the two involved in this incident both had them, officials said.

Dotson said this week that Tasers, which fire probes intended to deliver a debilitating electrical shock, were not an option because they aren’t always accurate and may not penetrate clothing.

He cited a policy that officers may use deadly force if an attacker with a knife is within 21 feet. He initially said Powell was two to three feet away when officers fired. After release of a video that clearly shows a greater distance, Dotson said through a spokeswoman that the estimate came from witness accounts and an investigation would determine the actual distance.

A police use-of-force consultant, Mel Tucker, is critical of the shooting. He said this week that he saw the video and thinks one officer should have tried to subdue Powell with a Taser while the other stood guard with a handgun.

“The distance here is very, very important,” said Tucker, of Raleigh, N.C., who formerly was police chief of Tallahassee, Fla. He said it appeared that Powell “was not an immediate threat to the officers when he was shot. It looked to me like he was 20 feet away and then he stumbles forward and falls over a retaining wall.”

Lt. Matt O’Neill, director of the St. Louis County Police Academy, said recruits there received 238 hours of classroom and practical exercises on use of force. Even with that, he said, it is difficult to prepare for the stress of a real life-or-death encounter.

“The movies make it look really easy,” he said.

Neighbors said Powell was quiet, courteous and regularly walked to a nearby library branch to read.

Calvin Frazier, 54, who lives two doors from Powell’s grandmother, in the 1300 block of Hornsby Avenue, said, “He was real smart. He read books on architecture, and you have to be smart to study that.”

Another neighbor, Rolene Walker, 69, said Powell moved in with his grandmother in January. Walker said she didn’t know him but saw him frequently in the neighborhood.

In light of the Ferguson protests, and after seeing the online video of Powell’s death, Walker said, “The police could have done it differently.”

One of the officers who fired on Powell is 25 and has been on the job a little more than three years; the other, 31, has been on the force about 2½ years. Their names were withheld pending an assessment of whether disclosure would put them in danger. Police had not released the names as of Friday.