Ever since the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, tensions between police and the agitated public have remained high throughout the country, and beyond Ferguson, Missouri.
This past Tuesday, a police officer was required to shoot an armed eighteen-year-old black male named Antonio Martin and killed him. Martin and another man were being questioned by a white police officer shortly after robbing a convenience store. Not long during the questioning did Martin decide to draw out a 9mm handgun on the police officer, forcing the officer to discharge his own gun three times. The police officer’s name has not been released to the public yet, but the chief of police in Ferguson, Jon Belmar has been giving statements out in his name. The convenience store’s outside camera shows the interaction between the police officer and the two men, and it shows how Martin attempted to reach something, which would later be identified as the handgun. The other man is seen on the video fleeing the scene and getting away.
People of Ferguson are labeling the event as another act of a hate crime and an abuse of power from white cops towards black men. On Christmas Eve protestors were ready to line up and start protesting, and were questioning whether or not the officer had to shoot Martin. While many are questioning that event, the officer did what he felt he had to do in a split decision. He may not have had a chance to outweigh the different possibilities of stopping Martin.
