The Latest: Murder charge filed in Missouri officer’s death

CLAYTON, Mo. – The Latest on the shooting death of a St. Louis County, Missouri, police officer responding to a report of a disturbance (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

An 18-year-old man has been charged in the shooting death of a St. Louis County, Missouri, police officer during an early hour exchange of gunfire that wounded the suspect.

Prosecutors on Thursday charged Trenton Forster with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the fatal shooting of 33-year-old officer Blake Snyder while Snyder was responding to a report of a disturbance.

Forster was wounded by another officer and prosecutors say he’s hospitalized in stable condition.

Forster and the officer who shot him are white, as was Snyder.

Police say Forster began shooting almost as soon as officers responded to a disturbance in the middle-class neighbourhood in Green Park. They say the gunfire struck Snyder and then the second officer fired at Forster and wounded him.

Court records show Forster is from St. Louis.

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10:30 a.m.

Police say a St. Louis County police officer was killed and a suspect critically injured in an exchange of gunfire.

Police say 33-year-old white officer Blake Snyder was fatally wounded during the pre-dawn shooting Thursday in Green Park, a small middle-class community. Police say the suspect — an 18-year-old white male — is in critical but stable condition after being shot by another officer.

Police say that almost as soon as officers responded to a disturbance call just after 5 a.m., the suspect of the disturbance began shooting, striking Snyder. A second officer returned fire, wounding the suspect.

The suspect’s name hasn’t been released.

Police say Snyder was married and had a 2-year-old son.

Police say it’s the first on-duty death of a St. Louis County officer since October 2000.