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ST. LOUIS (KTVI) – St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson is confident the facts will show this latest police-involved shooting is not another Ferguson.

Wednesday night, shots rang out as protesters gathered in the Shaw neighborhood. There’s no word on who fired them.

The protests were in reaction to a St. Louis police officer working a secondary job fatally shooting the 18 year-old Myers.  Police say Myers and the officer had a physical struggle.

Police say Myers shot at the officer at least 3 times and they have the evidence to support that.   The officer shot 17 times at the suspect, reportedly hitting him between 5 and 7 times.  He died at the scene.

Some reports said the suspect was unarmed and was holding a sandwich. Chief Dotson says that’s not true and social media is to blame.

“There was a conversation on social media that the officer tased the suspect.  This officer did not have a taser,” Dotson said. “There was a conversation the suspect had a sandwich not a gun.  We recovered a gun at the scene not a sandwich.  So I think we need to look at each case individually and the facts that surround them.”

Dotson said in the past, he’s handled police shooting that involved questions he couldn’t answer and he would pass them on to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

“If we get to a point where the facts don’t support the case and the facts that I understand the story, we’ve already said we’re giving it to the circuit attorney’s office, I have no problem passing it off to another 3rd party to look at it.”