Family wants new investigation in St. Louis police shooting

ST. LOUIS -- A state representative and the family of a man shot by St. Louis police are calling for a new investigation into the shooting.

Democratic Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. of St. Louis and the family of 25-year-old Cary Ball called on St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner on Wednesday to lead a new investigation into the shooting, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

"We don't feel like our questions were answered," said Ball's brother, Carlos Ball.

Officers Jason Chambers and Timothy Boyce shot Cary Ball more than 20 times in April 2013 after he crashed a car at the end of a police pursuit stemming from a traffic stop.

Police said Ball pointed a handgun at officers, but witnesses said they didn't see it.

"There are still a lot of questions surrounding what happened to my brother that night," Carlos Ball said. "Police say one thing; the witness statements totally contradict everything they said."

An FBI investigation concluded in 2014 officers were justified in using deadly force.

The federal review came at the request of then-police chief Sam Dotson after an internal police review that came to the same conclusion.

But Franks and Ball's family said the review didn't go far enough.

Franks said he found no evidence the FBI re-interviewed witnesses in the case or inspected the scene. Instead, he said they only looked at the internal review by St. Louis police.

But he said he's hopeful the new U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, Jeffrey Jensen, and Gardner will revisit the case. Gardner was not circuit attorney for St. Louis at the time of the investigation.

"This is about a young man's life that was lost and a family just trying to get accountability," said Franks, who has helped lead protests over police conduct in the past, including in Ferguson.

The St. Louis Police Department said Wednesday it will cooperate fully in the matter.

The department agreed to pay $400,000 to Ball's family in September 2013 as part of a settlement for a wrongful-death lawsuit.

Chambers and Boyce still are employed with the department.