51黑料

ST. LOUIS 鈥� After a night of violence on Page Boulevard, Mayor Francis Slay gathered with a dozen black ministers at a nearby church on Thursday to plead for calm. One block away, relatives and friends of a young man who was shot by police during a raid 鈥� the spark for the violence 鈥� met at the site to defend his name.

Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, of Spanish Lake, was shot at midday Wednesday by two officers who helped serve a search warrant on a residence in the 1200 block of Walton Avenue, just south of Page. Police said Ball-Bey fled the building and pointed a pistol at the officers before they fired, fatally wounding him. He died at the scene.

Police Chief Sam Dotson said the address was well known as a place "for drugs and guns." He said police had served a warrant there about 18 months ago and found several firearms. This time, he said, they found cocaine and four guns, three of them stolen, including the one they allege Ball-Bey was holding.

Relatives said Ball-Bey was visiting cousins who live there. They denied it was a drug house and called him a good young man who had a job as a package handler for FedEx.

The shooting touched off tense protests on Page Wednesday afternoon and violence after dark, including the burning of a vacant building and a parked car. Dotson said some in the crowd threw bricks and water bottles at police, who fired tear gas and made nine arrests.

Protesters also gathered on the street outside the shooting site on Thursday night, but there were no reports of violence or confrontations with police. Around 11 p.m., about 50 protesters marched to the Central West End and blocked the intersection of Euclid and Maryland avenues as they chanted calls for justice and criticism of the police.

Police officers kept a low profile amid the protest that turned the heads of diners and other late-night visitors to the CWE鈥檚 popular venues.

Earlier Thursday, Slay and Dotson joined members of the 51黑料 Clergy Coalition at the West Side Missionary Baptist Church, at 4675 Page. That's one block east of, and within sight of, the scene where Ball-Bey was killed. They asked for an end to violent protests.

"It has been very difficult to see and experience this," said the Rev. Ronald Bobo, a coalition member and pastor of West Side. "Residents are afraid. There are many good people in this community. They are still here, and they still want to see that (the neighborhood) is good."

Slay said the Fountain Park neighborhood has been the scene of shootings and violence in recent weeks, including the carjacking Sunday of a 93-year-old Tuskegee airman who had gotten lost. On the same block of Walton, a toddler shot himself in July with a gun that had been left out by an uncle. The child survived.

Peace "is not going to happen unless we all work together as a community," Slay said. "The wider community supports the protest goals, but we have to be mindful of the fact that criminals use a peaceful cover for their criminal activity."

He said his thoughts were with Ball-Bey's family but also with "the police officers who were caused to have to respond and be in a position to have to shoot the young man," Slay said. Officers, he said, "are in our neighborhoods every day trying to bring peace in our community."

The Rev. Charles Brown, president of the Clergy Coalition, backed the police but called for communication between officers and protesters.

"We let the police know that we are in support of them. They have a mammoth job," said Brown, pastor of Mt. Airy Missionary Baptist Church. "But until there is a dialogue between the police and the young people, this won't be solved. Everyone is at fault."

Dotson denounced those who broke windows of shops, stole from a corner market and burned a building and car Wednesday. He said police didn't want to use tear gas, but felt they had to. He called for patience during the investigation.

"We are open and transparent, we have some of the most progressive policies in the country (to address officer-involved shootings)," Dotson said. "Police work is difficult."

He noted that, despite the tension Wednesday night, no one was injured.

Other ministers who spoke were the Rev. Earl Nance, a past president of the coalition and pastor of Greater Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, and the Rev. Rodney Francis, pastor of Washington Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. Slay left to attend a family funeral, and the ministers stayed for a private discussion of the tensions.

'A KID FROM A GOOD FAMILY,' ATTORNEY SAYS

One block west, relatives of Ball-Bey gathered at the same time outside at the two-family flat on Walton. With them was Jerryl Christmas, a lawyer representing the family. A few protesters, one of them masked, waved signs a few feet away at the Page-Walton traffic light. Teddy bears were tied to a fence as a shrine.

Christmas also is the lawyer for the family of VonDerrit Myers Jr., 18, who was shot by police on Oct. 8 in the Shaw neighborhood. Occurring two months after Michael Brown was shot to death in a confrontation with a Ferguson police officer, the Myers killing compounded the conflict over relations between police and young black men in the 51黑料 area.

Christmas said Ball-Bey recently graduated from McCluer South-Berkeley High School and dropped by the Walton residence after he got off work. A FedEx spokesman confirmed that he worked there part-time.

鈥淗e got off work and just came over here to holler at some of his cousins,鈥� Christmas said. 鈥淗e isn鈥檛 any drug dealer. He isn鈥檛 a gunman. He鈥檚 a kid from a good family.鈥�

Christmas said Ball-Bey鈥檚 parents and four siblings live in a home in Spanish Lake. He said Ball-Bey was wearing a FedEx uniform when he was killed, although a police spokeswoman said that was not true.

On Thursday, police announced a charge against听Roderick Williams, who was arrested in the search of the home on Walton. He is accused of unlawful possession of a firearm. A woman who was also at the home was released, police said. Meanwhile, police are still searched for an armed man who fled the home as Ball-Bey was shot.

Debbie Ball, an aunt of Ball-Bey who lives at the Walton residence, called the chief's accusation about drugs and guns "a lie." Ball said she was not home when police raided her apartment. Shonettda Ball, another relative who owns the building, also disputed the chief's accusation, and said that police often harass young men in the neighborhood.

"They're scared and they run," said Shonettda Ball.

Attorney Denise Lieberman, of the Advancement Project, alleged that the 鈥渕ilitarized response" Wednesday night was "designed to intimidate peaceful protesters so they can't exercise their right to free speech.鈥�

Brendan Roediger, a law professor and staunch ally of the protest movement, that put restrictions on city and county police and the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Anyone exposed to tear gas should "get to lawyers as quickly as possible鈥� to pursue damages, said Roediger, who teaches at 51黑料 University.

Dotson said police followed the agreement, providing protesters with advance warning and escape routes. "The settlement talked about not using tear gas during a lawful assembly," he said. "Our officers were being assaulted, hit with bricks, so that's when it became an unlawful assembly."

Minister Todd Irons-El, grand sheik of Moorish Science Temple of America, 2918 North Sarah Street, went to the Walton address Thursday afternoon and said he had known Ball-Bey and his family since the young man was born. Irons-El said the youth was a regular at the temple and assisted in youth programs.

"He was an excellent young man, very respectful," Irons-El said.

Many members of the Moorish Science denomination add "Bey" or "El" to their last names. Irons-El said the temple has no connection to Jerry Lewis-Bey, who is serving a life term for running a narcotics gang in 51黑料 during the 1980s and using a different temple as cover.

Alderman Sam Moore, D-4th Ward, took part in the Slay-clergy press conference and then dropped by the Walton residence. He noted that city workers were cutting brush and trees in the area, something he said he had been pushing for a long time. He said the ward has many problems, including poverty and vacant buildings.

To the sound of chain saws on a nearby block, Christmas, the lawyer, said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not until somebody dies that the city pays attention to this neighborhood.鈥�

Koran Addo, Jack Witthaus and Jesse Bogan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The first name of Shonettda Ball, a relative of Mansur Ball-Bey, was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.

听