Police officer shot in the face and another hit in shoulder in latest outbreak of violence in Ferguson

 
Shooting: Police gather outside the Ferguson Police Department in the early hours of this morning (Picture: AP)
Michael Howie12 March 2015

Two officers have been shot during a protest outside the police headquarters in Ferguson, the US suburb at the centre of unrest since an unnarmed black teenager was shot dead by a black policeman.

One officer was shot in the face and the other in the shoulder last night as protesters gathered following the resignation of Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson.

He was the sixth employee to resign or be fired after a Justice Department report cleared white former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson of civil rights charges in the shooting of black 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson last summer.

St Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told a news conference that the officers, age 32 and 41, were taken to a local hospital and were conscious.

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS DISTRESSING CONTENT

He described their injuries as “very serious”.

At least three shots rang out as the crowd protesting at the station was breaking up, Mr Belmar said.

“These police officers were standing there and they were shot, just because they were police officers,” Mr Belmar added, before saying it was thought the shooter was “embedded” among the demonstrators standing across from the officers.

In dramatic video footage of the shooting, three shots can be are heard followed by screaming.

One protester, Keith Rose, said he saw an officer “covered in blood”, and that other officers were carrying and dragging him, leaving a trail of blood on the ground.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Two <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/SaintLouCo" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-84871-https://twitter.com/SaintLouCo" data-vars-event-id="c23">@SaintLouCo</a> police officers were shot outside the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-84871-https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#Ferguson</a> PD shortly after midnight. Gathering more info. Conditions not known.— St. Louis County PD (@stlcountypd) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/stlcountypd/status/575906278288941056" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-84871-https://twitter.com/stlcountypd/status/575906278288941056" data-vars-event-id="c23">March 12, 2015</a>

Tensions in the St Louis suburb of 21,000 mostly black people had been further stoked by a separate Justice Department report which identified widespread racial bias in the police department, which has only three black officers.

Protesters demonstrate outside the Ferguson Police Department (Picture: Getty)

The report noted public officials regularly made tickets and other minor violations “go away” for white friends, while some black residents spent nights in jail for non-payment of fines.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in