A St. Louis woman has died Wednesday after being shot by police because she refused to drop her gun.
Officers began receiving 911 calls about a woman firing a gun in the Holly Hills neighborhood around 11:45 Wednesday morning, interim St. Louis Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole said in a briefing that was broadcast on Periscope.
The woman, identified Wednesday night as 50-year-old Robin White, a black woman, was still shooting when officers arrived, O’Toole said, and was killed after ignoring orders to drop the weapon.
“Preliminarily, it appears that it could have been some sort of family disturbance that’s going on, or a dispute, and that’s why she had her handgun and fired shots,” O’Toole said, adding that family members were inside the house where the shooting happened. No one else was injured.
O’Toole said bullets damaged at least two cars in the 3600 block of Wilmington Avenue; crime-scene technicians found at least 10 shell casings from the woman’s gun in the yard. They also recovered her weapon.
The male officer who shot the woman is a 19-year-veteran and on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated. This is the first time an officer has shot and killed someone in St. Louis since February, though there have been other non-fatal shootings.
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