Two Police Officers Shot during Ferguson Protests
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Two police officers were shot during a protest in Ferguson, according to the St Louis county police department.
Gunfire was heard at a protest outside the police department of Ferguson, Missouri, early on Thursday morning, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene.
A few dozen demonstrators fled after the sound with some screaming, “They hit a cop,” around midnight, the photographer said. Police could not be reached immediately for comment.
Lieutenant colonel Al Eickhoff told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that he did not know the extent of the injuries to the officers. A police source told the paper that both officers were expected to survive. TV station KSDK reported the officers were taken to a local hospital.
Several dozen protesters had gathered in front of the Ferguson police department earlier on Wednesday night, just hours after the city’s police chief, Thomas Jackson, announced his resignation.
Protesters had called for Jackson’s removal since the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on 9 August 2014. The killing triggered nationwide protests and drew scrutiny to police use of deadly force, especially against black men.
Jackson’s departure was the latest in a string of officials who stepped down following a scathing report from the US Justice Department that found widespread racially biased abuses in the city’s police department and municipal court.