Police officers shot in Ferguson ‘ambush’ are released from hospital
FERGUSON, Mo. – The two police officers who were shot during a protest here early Thursday were victims of “an ambush,” the St. Louis County police chief said, hours after gunfire rang out in front of the police station, throwing into panic what had been a largely peaceful protest.
Demonstrators and police officers alike hit the ground when the shots echoed through the crisp air shortly after midnight, striking the two officers.
The injured officers were released from the hospital Thursday morning.
“We’re lucky by God’s grace we didn’t lose two officers last night,” Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County Police Department said at a midmorning news conference. It was clear that the police were the targets, he said, adding, “This is really an ambush, is what it is.”
Later in the morning, in an action that officials said was part of the investigation into the shooting, police SWAT units surrounded a house a few blocks from the shooting scene, and officers climbed onto the roof and broke through a vent there to gain access.
“People have been taken in for questioning,” said a police spokesman, Sgt. Brian Schellman. “No arrests at this point.”
Belmar said people had a right to protest peacefully, but also said “there is an unfortunate association with that gathering” and the shooting.
Witnesses among the demonstrators denied any link to the shootings, saying that they believed the shots originated from the top of a hill about 220 yards directly across from the station. Belmar did not specify a location but estimated the distance at 125 yards.
“There’s just no way anybody I know did that,” said Bob Hudgins, a protester who is running for City Council. “This was completely out of the blue, and they were not attached or embedded” with the demonstration.
The shooting threatened to ratchet up tensions and undo efforts to change the way the police here do business and to heal the anger and frustration that have boiled over since Aug. 9, when a white police officer, Darren Wilson, fatally shot an unarmed, 18-year-old black man, Michael Brown.
The Brown family, in a statement from its lawyer, denounced “the actions of stand-alone agitators” who tried to derail the protests. “We reject any kind of violence directed toward members of law enforcement,” the statement said. “It cannot and will not be tolerated.”