WARNING: The video below contains graphic speech.
Two St. Louis County police officers were shot outside the Ferguson, Mo. police station early this morning. According to reports their injuries are not life-threatening, but both are listed in serious condition.
The officers were shot while a crowd gathered outside the police station after it was announced that Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson had agreed to resign. According to a witness interviewed by the New York Times, shots came from over the head of the crowd and hit the officers as they stood in front of the police station. Fellow officers were then seen dragging the wounded officers into the station.
Jackson was the face of the Ferguson police department during its confrontations with protesters in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown in August, and in the aftermath of a grand jury's decision in November not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for Brown's death. Jackson, as well as much of the municipal government in Ferguson, were the subject of a damning Department of Justice report released last week that outlined a pattern of official racial discrimination in the city.
UPDATE: In a press conference this morning, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar called the shooting an "ambush." Belmar also told the media that one officer was shot under his right eye, and now the bullet is lodged behind one of his ears. The other officer was shot in his shoulder and the bullet came out the middle of his back. The St. Louis police "perhaps" have some leaders on the shooter, according to Belmar, but no one is in custody.
UPDATE 2: Three people have reportedly been brought in for questioning, according to Fox News. Police were seen swarming a home four blocks away from where the shooting took place and bringing two men out of the house. A woman was also led away in handcuffs. As for the injured officers, both men are out of the hospital after being treated.
[via New York Times]
