Emeshyon Wilkins

Detectives on Tuesday afternoon shot and killed a teen after police said he led them on a chase in a stolen SUV and pointed a gun at them in north St. Louis. Police did not say if the teen fired shots at officers, but investigators recovered a gun near his body, police said. A tense, emotional scene unfolded Tuesday in an alley off of Whittier Street between St. Louis and Maffitt avenues, as a crowd of family and onlookers gathered. “Please tell me something,” one woman said between sobs. Two family members at the scene later identified the deceased as 17-year-old Emeshyon Wilkins. Police did not immediately release his name or age. The chase began at around 1 p.m. Tuesday in the city’s Baden neighborhood when members of an anti-crime task force tried to stop a Mazda SUV that had been picked up by multiple license plate readers in recent days as being stolen, with stolen plates. Police tried to pull the car over, but it did not stop. They chased it into the city’s Penrose neighborhood where they eventually put down spike strips. The vehicle came to a stop several blocks later after fleeing south over Natural Bridge Avenue into the Ville neighborhood. Wilkins and another teen then jumped out of the car and ran away from officers, police said, while a third juvenile stayed in the car. Officers chased the two teens, and Wilkins pointed a gun at them, police said. Officers shot him in the alley. They later recovered suspected drugs from his body, police said. One of Wilkins’ relatives said he was a football player who worked at McDonald’s. The other teen ran in another direction and tripped and fell. He still had a gun in his hand when he was arrested, police said. A woman who identified herself as his mother told the Post-Dispatch he was 16 years old. The third juvenile who remained in the SUV was cooperative and was not armed, police said. They declined to say whether the juvenile was a boy or girl. The officer who shot and killed the juvenile is 40 years old with about 17 years of experience, police said. They did not say how many times he fired his weapon, citing the pending investigation.