20-year old arrested in connection with shooting

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March 16, 2015 12:01 PM

The suspect, Jeffrey L. Williams was arrested late Saturday and charged with first-degree assault in connection with the shooting.

A 20-year old man, Jeffrey L. Williams has been arrested in connection with shooting 2 Ferguson police officers at a protest outside Police Headquarters last week.

New York Times reports that the suspect who was charged with shooting the two police officers claimed to have been targeting someone other than the officers and shot them by accident from inside a car.

Williams was arrested late Saturday and charged with first-degree assault in connection with the shooting.

Meanwhile, several protest leaders, however, quickly took to Twitter to deny that Williams was one of them, or that they had even seen him among the crowd the night of the shooting.

Williams, who was on probation at the time of the shooting for receiving stolen property, reportedly admitted his involvement to investigators and acknowledged firing the shots, telling investigators that he had a dispute with some people outside the police station that had nothing to do with the demonstration.

Speaking on Williams' claim, prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, Robert P. McCulloch said:

“We’re not 100 percent sure that there was a dispute. That’s part of the claim right now. It’s possible that there was a dispute. It’s possible that he was targeting police officers. We just have to wait for the investigation to develop.”

Williams is currently in police custody while bond has been set at $300,000.

In the meantime, demonstrators who have denounced the shooting have continued marching and protesting, saying they would not be distracted from seeking justice for Mr. Brown’s killing and for systemic change in Ferguson’s police and court system.

The protests are a fall out of the shooting of unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, last year and this latest demonstration kicked off after Ferguson Police Chief, Thomas Jackson announced his resignation, after a Justice Department released a scathing report which found widespread misconduct, racial bias and unconstitutional practices by Ferguson’s police department.

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