US: Unarmed black teen shot dead by rookie police officer

An unarmed, black college football player was shot dead by a white trainee police officer responding to a report of a burglary.

Christian Taylor, 19 from Arlington, Texas, died of multiple shot gun wounds in a stand-off with police at a car dealership.

He is alleged to have crashed his jeep into the front window of a Classic Buick GMC dealership in Arlington, about 10 miles (16km) west of Dallas.

At one point, Taylor allegedly kicked out the windshield of one of the cars. A security company called 911 monitored the break-in on surveillance cameras and reported a possible burglary in progress.

When officers arrived, they yelled at Taylor to get on the ground, but he ran away and tried to open a locked glass door

Taylor, a second year student at Angelo State University, San Angelo, was shot multiple times during the incident by rookie officer Brad Miller who was attending the scene with a colleague who was training him.

Taylor, who died at the scene, was found to be unarmed.

Police spokesman Sgt Paul Rodriguez told the Star Telegram: "The officers went and confronted him. There was an altercation. An officer discharged his weapon and struck the suspect."

Sgt Rodriguez added: "As an agency, we take the loss of any human life as serious, but we owe it to our community to conduct a clear and transparent investigation to determine what exactly took place."

It is the latest in a series of shootings of black men by white police officers to have hit the headlines in the US.

Taylor's father Adrian Miller said while it appears his son may have been n the process of committing a crime, he shouldn't have had to die.

"What he'd done, ain't no way right," Adrian Taylor told CNN affiliate KTVT. "But to shoot an unarmed man? You're a police officer, you're trained to take down men with your hands. You have your Tasers, you have your clubs, whatever there is. Unarmed, a 19-year-old -- and you shoot to kill?"

During a Saturday night news conference, Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson said the FBI's Dallas field office had been asked to help investigate the death.

Miller, who graduated from the police academy in March, is on routine administrative leave as authorities investigate the shooting, Arlington police said.