By Leah Thorsen
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — Police said a man killed in a confrontation with officers late Monday night had tried to shoot at them.
Gregory Mays, 30, of the Castle Point neighborhood of north St. Louis County, pulled a pistol on police working an anti-robbery detail and was shot while trying to clear jammed cartridges, officials said.
It happened about 10:30 p.m in the 3100 block of Texas Avenue, just west of the intersection of South Jefferson Avenue and Arsenal Street.
Mays was on parole after a first-degree assault conviction, officials said.
Police said officers assigned to try to stop robberies in that area saw two people emerge from alley. One stopped when officers approached but the other, Mays, ran around a corner, they said.
He pulled a gun from his waistband, tried to fire it and kept hitting it in an effort to clear the jam, police said. One officer fired several shots, hitting Mays several times. He died at a hospital. Nobody else was reported hurt.
The other man was held for questioning. Police did not reveal the identity of the officer who fired the shots.
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