Police officers shot in the face outside Ferguson police station

onnaedo

March 12, 2015 12:09 PM

Briefing news men on the incident, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said both officers were conscious but their injuries were however "serious".

The last has not been heard of Ferguson as 2 police officers have been shot outside the Ferguson Police Station.

Demonstrators had gathered outside the station to protest the resignation of Ferguson's police chief, Thomas Jackson following the Justice Department report which alleged bias in the police department and court when the shooting happened.

The victims - a 32-year-old officer from nearby Webster Groves and a 41-year-old officer from St. Louis County were shot in the face and shoulder respectively.

Briefing news men on the incident, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said both officers were conscious but their injuries were however "serious".

He also admitted that he didn't know who did the shooting, nor could he provide a description of the suspect or gun but he said his "assumption" based on where the officers were standing and the trajectory of the bullets, was that "these shots were directed exactly at my officers."

The protest was reminiscent of similar and much larger demonstrations which followed the acquittal of white officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of black, 18-year-old Michael Brown last year. This is however the first time a police officer has been shot at the scene of a protest.

Jackson, who had previously resisted calls by protesters and some of Missouri's top elected leaders to step down over his handling of Brown's shooting and the weeks of protests that followed, is the sixth employee to resign or be fired after Wilson was cleared of civil rights charges in the shooting by the Justice Department.

The acting head of the Justice Department's civil rights division released a statement saying the U.S. government remains committed to reaching a "court-enforceable agreement" to address Ferguson's "unconstitutional practices" regardless of who's in charge of the city.

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