Austin Howerton

A former Imo's pizza restaurant employee held workers at gunpoint inside the store, then died in a shootout with Bridgeton officers, authorities said. St. Louis County police said the man was Austin Howerton, 32, who lived on La Havre Circle in Florissant. His motive wasn't immediately clear. He died at the scene. Three Bridgeton police officers fired at the man. No one else was injured in the shooting. Bridgeton police Chief Brice Loveall asked county police to investigate the shooting. Loveall declined to comment for this story. County police spokeswoman Mary Schmitt said Bridgeton officers were sent to the Imo's at 9:12 p.m. at 11911 St. Charles Rock Road. A caller said a former employee, who worked there years ago, was inside the store, holding workers at gunpoint. When officers arrived, they encountered a man with a gun and exchanged shots with him, Schmitt said. Detectives are still working to learn the sequence of events, she said. On Thursday night, a woman driving by the Imo's in Bridgeton stopped in the road and took video, posted on Instagram. Her video shows at least a half dozen officers pointing guns at the storefront, some taking cover behind two columns on the sidewalk. One officer is seen running toward the back of the store. The driver and her friend in the car giggle nervously at first as they describe what they see. "All the glass is blown out," one says. "What is happening?" They gasp when they hear a shot. Then the driver makes a quick U-turn and drives away. The driver, 29-year-old Satiah Venker, told the Post-Dispatch on Friday, "I couldn't believe my eyes." Venker was on her way to Walmart to buy supplies for her birthday party. "You hear about this stuff," she said. "I didn't think I would drive by and hear gunshots. I'm just trying to go to the store." The three Bridgeton police officers who fired shots were not identified by name. One is 47 and has been a Bridgeton officer for four years. The second is 55 and has been on the Bridgeton force 12 years. And the third is 31 with four years' experience on the department.