FERGUSON, Mo. — Two police officers were shot here early
Thursday morning as gunfire rang out in front of the police station,
throwing into panic what had been a spirited — and at times tense —
but largely peaceful night of protests. Demonstrators and police alike hit the ground when the gunshots
echoed through the crisp air. Many people ran for cover. Officers,
clad in riot gear, dragged their wounded fellow officers to safety,
while others crouched behind cars and walls, drawing their handguns
or rifles as they rapidly swiveled their heads every which way to
survey their surroundings. One officer, from the St. Louis County Police Department, was shot
in the shoulder and the other, from the suburban Webster Groves
department, was shot in the face. Both were in serious condition but
had nonlife threatening injuries, said Sgt. Brian Schellman, a
spokesman for the St. Louis County police.
The shots, which witnesses said
they believed came from the top of a hill about 220 yards directly
across from the station, came just hours after the Ferguson police
chief, Thomas Jackson, announced
that he would resign, a move greeted with praise from protesters.
Chief Jackson had been at the center of criticism that he ran a
racially biased department ever since one of his white officers
fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager seven months
ago. A protester confronted the police outside the Ferguson police
station on Wednesday night. Credit Jeff Roberson/Associated Press. But Thursday’s shooting threatened to ratchet up tensions, and
unravel efforts to change the way the police here do business and
heal the anger and frustration that Mr. Brown’s killing unleashed.
In addition to Chief Jackson’s resignation, two other
high-ranking Ferguson officials, the city
manager and the municipal
judge, left their jobs after a scathing Justice Department report
last week that accused the city of racially biased and
unconstitutional practices in its law enforcement. City officials had
hoped that the changes would help residents see that they were
prepared to start anew. Instead, Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County Police
Department said that Thursday’s shooting only realized the worst
fears he has had since the unrest over Mr. Brown’s killing — that
it would lead to serious violence. He said he believed the shooter targeted the officers who were
lined up shoulder to shoulder in front of the Ferguson police station
to keep protesters back.
”I’ve said all along that we cannot sustain this forever
without problems,” Chief Belmar told reporters during a news
conference in front of Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where the
wounded officers were being treated.
“I don’t know who did the shooting, to be honest with you,”
he added. Chief Belmar said that based on the bullets’ trajectory
and where the officers had been standing, he assumed that “these
shots were directed exactly at my police officers.” He said he did
not know what kind of gun had been used.
The Webster Groves officer is 32
years old and a seven-year veteran of the force, while the St. Louis
County officer is 41 and has 14 years experience, the county police
said.
Emotions quickly ran high after
the shooting. One Ferguson officer, standing among the protesters as
things calmed down, said, “This is what they wanted to happen.”
When a protester told him that no one wanted this to happen, the
officer was adamant, saying that was his opinion and that the
protester could differ if he wanted.
Protesters on the scene were quick to point out that the gunfire
did not come from among them, rather from a distance behind them. Earlier in the night, the protests took on a familiar pattern that
had not really been seen here since after a grand jury announced in
November that it would not indict the white officer, Darren Wilson, for the fatal
shooting of Mr. Brown.
It was as much a celebration of Chief Jackson’s resignation as
it was a call for more action. “Not just Jackson, we want Knowles, Ferguson has got to go!”
they yelled in reference to James Knowles III, the mayor of Ferguson.
Protesters engaged in a
cat-and-mouse game of sorts with the police. Dozens of them flooded
into the street in front of the police department, blocking cars as
they tried to pass. Things occasionally got tense between the
protesters and motorists, some of whom refused to back away when
demonstrators lined up in front of their vehicles. On several
occasions, drivers inched forward, tapping the knees of protesters
who dared them to hit them.
Each time, one side would
eventually give in — either the driver would back away or the
protesters would let them through. But on other occasions, police
officers wearing helmets and clutching transparent shields and batons
would race into the street to clear away the demonstrators. The
police made a handful of arrests.
Some of the tensest moments came when the protesters fought among
themselves. Some people urged others to block cars, while others
urged their fellow demonstrators to get out of the street and direct
their anger at the officers who were lined up in front of the police
station.
There were tussles between protesters who did not recognize each
other, with the fault line appearing to be those who had been
demonstrating for many months versus those who were new to the
movement. Some took offense to the supposedly new protesters trying
to tell them what to do. At one point it devolved into fisticuffs in
the street, as the police stood by watching.
But by midnight, the situation calmed down, and the number of
protesters dwindled to around 100, if not less. They stood on the
east side of the road, while the police held their line on the west
side, in front of the station.
Then, without any warning or seeming escalation, the shots.
“I heard the bullets go past my head,” said Bradley J.
Rayford, a freelance photographer, who said he was standing near the
officers when the shots were fired. After the first shot, Mr. Rayford
said, he looked up at a hill across from the police station and saw
muzzle fire from that direction. He said he heard about four shots,
after which he went to the ground.
After the shots were fired on Thursday, the remaining protesters
scattered, and the St. Louis County Police Department’s homicide
unit was sent to investigate.
Dozens of officers from around the region also arrived to secure
the area. A group of officers in tactical gear carefully walked up
the hill across from the police station where Mr. Rayford and other
witnesses said the shots had come from.
By 2 a.m., a handful of people remained in the lot across from the
department, which was encircled in yellow police tape. Investigators
tried to interview people in the group. But in a sign of the chasm
that remained between law enforcement and this protest movement, many
of them were reluctant to talk.