ST. LOUIS — A 16-year-old boy killed by police last fall at a north St. Louis gas station was shot 18 times, according to the teenager's autopsy report.
Darryl Ross was shot and killed by two drug enforcement detectives late Sept. 11 outside the Shell gas station at North Florissant and St. Louis avenues in the city's Old North St. Louis neighborhood.
The autopsy report, obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday, reveals for the first time information about Darryl's death investigation, including that he was shot 14 times in his torso, three times in his right arm and once in his left thigh.
Police and family members had contradicting recollections of what happened before the shooting, but they agreed Darryl was armed and running away that night when two police detectives began to chase him across the front of the store before shooting him.
The undercover officers were not wearing body cameras, but the shooting was captured by several surveillance cameras outside the gas station. Soundless surveillance video footage was played for members of the media but not released publicly.
Darryl's family released a portion of the footage themselves.
The video showed Darryl arriving at the gas station at 11:03 p.m. and having several interactions, which police described as drug deals. Officers had not mentioned a drug deal in their initial incident reports, instead saying they went to the gas station because of several people with guns.
Johnson said she was at the gas station with her son and that he was at the store to buy chicken tenders.
Two undercover police cars pulled up next to Darryl and one officer, wearing a vest marked with POLICE, got out of the car and pointed a gun at the teen, who then ran away, according to the surveillance footage.
The teen tripped in front of the store, and the video showed him reaching for something that had fallen to the ground. Officers then opened fire.
Darryl’s mother was near her son when he was killed, and was shown on video distraught after the shooting.
The teenager’s family agreed with police that Darryl had a gun and was running from police before he was shot, but they disputed the police narrative that Darryl had reached for his gun and that officers identified themselves.
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