Two police officers have been shot in Ferguson, a Missouri
town hit by riots over the killing of an unarmed black teenager last year.and an eyewitness said "I saw one officer covered in blood- I saw other officers running to the aid of that officer.
Here is more from CNN,
"Two police officers were shot in Ferguson early Thursday morning
as demonstrations that began as a celebration of the police chief's resignation
gave way to violence and gunfire.
One, a St. Louis County police officer, was struck in the
shoulder; the other, a Webster Groves officer, was hit in the face, said St.
Louis Police Chief Jon Belmar.
The officers were hospitalized and conscious, he said.
Police from various jurisdictions were in the city keeping
an eye on the protestors at the time.
"These police officers were standing there and they
were shot, just because they were police officers," Belmar said.
Protesters had gathered outside the Ferguson Police
Department Wednesday night to cheer the resignation of the city's embattled
Police Chief Thomas Jackson.
The crowd had been thinning out, ready to call it a night,
when the shots rang out, Belmar said.
"All of a sudden, I heard at least four or five shots
ring out," witness Markus Loehrer told CNN. "It took me at least 30
seconds of watching before I realized there was an officer down. We are not
there to shoot cops, we don't like violence. So we did what anybody would do --
we ran away."
"We could see the muzzle flash," said Bradley
Rayford, a witness who said he was a few feet from the shooting. "Someone
was shooting towards the police department."
Here is a tweet sent out by one of the photographers on sight,
Police take cover after two cops were shot in front of #Ferguson PD on Thursday, March 12, 2015. pic.twitter.com/jGRd9BI1vA
— Laurie Skrivan (@LaurieSkrivan) March 12, 2015
The demonstrations started off peacefully, but devolved through the course of the night.
As they faced a long line of officers, some demonstrators
briefly closed South Florissant Road that runs in front of the police station.
At least two people were arrested, CNN affiliate KMOV reported, but it wasn't
clear why.
Now it's tense over here. They just took Heather's phone because she was livestreaming. Wow. pic.twitter.com/bsBJtjuicg
— deray mckesson (@deray) March 12, 2015
Some chanted "Racist cops have got to go."
At least one scuffle broke out between demonstrators. Some
officers stood behind cars with guns drawn.
The revived protests, which had died down in recent weeks,
is indication that Ferguson continues to be a powder keg despite the string of
resignations that have followed since the Justice Department issued a report
damning the city's policing tactics for disproportionately targeting
African-Americans.
The latest to step down was Police Chief Thomas Jackson.
Protester DeRay McKesson said demonstrators want more --
they want the police department disbanded and for Mayor James Knowles to resign
as well.
The demonstrators are also angry that the officer who killed
Michael Brown was exonerated of wrong doing by a grand jury and the Justice
Department.
It was the shooting death of Brown, an unarmed black teen,
by the white police Officer Darren Wilson that saw Ferguson erupt in
sometimes-violent protests.
"We're here for Mike Brown," demonstrators chanted
Wednesday night.
Chief's resignation
Earlier Wednesday, Chief Jackson resigned. He had come under
fire almost immediately after Brown's death, and protesters had been demanding
his resignation for months.
Jackson and the city "have agreed to a mutual
separation," Ferguson officials announced.
"It's a really hard pill to swallow," Jackson said
in a text message responding to CNN's request for comment.
The resignation will go into effect March 19, Jackson said,
to "provide for an orderly transition of command."
Ferguson police chief resigns, gets one year pay
String of resignations
Jackson's resignation is the latest fallout from the Justice
Department report, which faulted Ferguson's officers for seeing residents,
particularly African-Americans, as "sources of revenue."
The investigators also found evidence of racist jokes being
sent around by Ferguson police and court officials.
Ferguson City Manager John Shaw stepped down Tuesday. The
report mentions both men by name.
Two police officers resigned last week and the city's top
court clerk was fired in connection with racist emails, city spokesman Jeff
Small said on Friday.
After his resignation Wednesday, Jackson said in a written
statement to CNN's Don Lemon that he was encouraged by the report's conclusion,
which says that Ferguson "has the capacity to reform its approach to law
enforcement."
"We agree that Ferguson can do the tough work to see
this through and emerge the best small town it can be," he said.
Chief defended department as criticism grew
When Jackson became Ferguson's police chief in 2010, it was
supposed to be a relatively easy way to cap his career in law enforcement.
After some 30 years with the St. Louis County Police
Department, serving as commander of a drug task force and SWAT team supervisor,
being a police chief of a smaller department should have been less stressful.
The shooting of Michael Brown last year changed everything.
Brown, an African-American teen, was unarmed when he was
shot by a white Ferguson police officer. The incident exposed feelings of
distrust between Ferguson's black community and its police department, which is
overwhelmingly white.
Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, won't face any
criminal charges for the shooting. In November, a grand jury decided not to
indict him. Last week the Justice Department said Wilson's actions "do not
constitute prosecutable violations" of federal civil rights law. He
resigned from the department in November, citing security concerns.
But that hasn't stopped criticism of the department from
local residents and top federal officials.
Even before the Justice Department report was finished, U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder said it was "pretty clear that the need for
wholesale change in that department is appropriate."
Critics have accused Jackson of inflaming tensions in the
St. Louis suburb with his response to the shooting.
Over the past six months, Jackson has defended his officers
and vowed to work with the community.
"I intend to see this thing through. And I've been
working with a lot of community members to work on some progressive changes
that will bring the community together and to open up dialogue and getting us
all talking about serious issues and actually creating solutions to
problems," he told CNN in November."
Well, that's it.
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