In the midst of ongoing tensions in the St. Louis area, a 25-year-old Black man named Kajieme Powell was shot and killed on August 19, 2014. The incident began after police received a call about a suspected shoplifting of soft drinks and doughnuts from a convenience store in St. Louis. When two officers, Nicholas Shelton and Ellis Brown, arrived at the scene, they encountered Powell pacing on the sidewalk, behaving erratically.
Within seconds of their arrival, the situation escalated
dramatically. Powell, who was holding a knife, approached the officers and shouted, 'Shoot me! Kill me now!' The two officers drew their weapons, and a witness captured the fatal encounter on a cell phone video. The footage showed the officers firing multiple shots at Powell, who fell to the ground. In total, twelve shots were fired. The officers stated they felt their lives were in jeopardy. An autopsy revealed that Powell sustained thirteen entrance wounds, with one likely being a re-entry wound.
The shooting of Kajieme Powell quickly drew public attention, particularly because it occurred just ten days after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, which had already sparked significant unrest. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department released the witness's video and 911 calls in an effort to be transparent. However, discrepancies emerged between the initial police account and what the video appeared to show, specifically regarding how close Powell was to the officers and the manner in which he was holding the knife. While the police chief initially stated Powell was within three to four feet and holding the knife in an 'overhand grip,' the video suggested he was farther away with his hands at his side.
Following an investigation, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce announced in November 2015 that no criminal charges would be filed against officers Shelton and Brown. The prosecutor's office concluded that the officers acted in self-defense and that a criminal violation could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Powell's family, who stated he suffered from mental illness, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, the police chief, and the two officers, alleging the use of unreasonable force. Years later, in an unrelated case, one of the officers, Ellis Brown, was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2020 for depriving an individual of their constitutional rights during an incident in 2019 while he was an officer with a different police department.
