ST. LOUIS — Police say 34-year-old Demetrius Brooks was shot and killed by a St. Louis Metropolitan police officer after investigators say he pulled out a gun.
Officers say Brooks ran from police to an alley near Virginia and Cherokee, jumped a fence and got into a struggle with a police officer chasing him.
"All of a sudden we hear a 'pop pop', she runs in my room," said a woman who lives where officers shot Brooks and did not want to give her name. "I was like 'what was that?' and she's like 'gunshots.'"
Police say those gunshots came from a St. Louis Metro officer Thursday night.
"We heard them talking to somebody and realized there was somebody in the yard and they had been shot," the woman added.
That man who was shot 34-year-old old Demetrius Brooks -- who police say pulled a gun out after running from officers Thursday night.
"They were chasing him and he jumped my back gate and got in my yard," the woman said.
Today we're learning more about Brooks past.
In 2005, he was arrested for armed criminal action and first degree robbery.
Court records show he pleaded guilty to those crimes in 2008 and was in prison until 2014.
Police say they did find a gun on Brooks at the scene but there is no video of what happened.
That could've changed if the department and city leaders followed through on a body camera pilot program that was started and quickly abandoned in 2015.
"I have no idea why the administration hasn't moved forward with it, but I know i will be pushing very heavily for it again this budget year," said St. Louis Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed.
But for the last 4 years, St. Louis Police and city leaders have been blaming a lack of funding for not having body cameras.
"We need to get something done now, we're not helping the public, we're not helping the police department or anybody else by not having all the information available in cases like this and other cases," said Reed.
That's something a woman who just witnessed a police shooting says could help answer questions.
"For both the protection of the suspect and the police officer," she said.