America
Manhunt launched after Ferguson police officers attacked
Washington, March 13
Two police officers were
shot and wounded in an “ambush†on Thursday in the US city of Ferguson,
spurring a manhunt for the perpetrators, according to media reports.
"We
could have buried two police officers," said St. Louis county police
chief Jon Belmar, according to a CNN report. "... I feel very confident
that whoever did this ... came there for whatever nefarious reason that
it was", he added.
The shots rang out shortly after midnight, at
the end of a protest against the Ferguson police department, which has
been under fire since one of its officers, Darren Wilson, shot and
killed an unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August last year.
The
resentment against the Ferguson police worsened after a US Department
of Justice report last week documented a pattern of systematic racism
within the Ferguson police department.
Ferguson, a city in the US
state of Missouri and the county of St. Louis, has seen heightened
tensions following Brown's shooting. A number of black men were killed
in the US by the police last year, which resulted in a wave of protests.
On
Wednesday, Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson resigned, after the
federal report pointed out a culture of racism within the police
department and municipal offices in the city.
While the
demonstrators' focus was the Ferguson police department, neither of the
wounded officers works in that St. Louis suburb's police department.
Both
the officers were treated and released from St. Louis' Barnes Jewish
Hospital, the St. Louis County Police said on Facebook.
Following
the attack on the police, officials said on Thursday that St. Louis
County Police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol would take over
security responsibilities related to the protests in Ferguson.
Authorities
have not indicated if they know who shot the officers, though Belmar
said that "several people ... have been very forthright" with
investigators. Police have recovered shell casings that may be tied to
the shooting.
Two men and a woman were reportedly questioned by
the police. A police spokesman said that no one has been officially
taken into custody.
It is not known what connection, if any, the shooter or shooters had to Wednesday night's protest.