It was just about midnight, and was at the tag end of an action at the police department, post “Chief Tom Jackson resigns” news. The Guardian coverage was the most thorough at the time.
(Note: if you can’t see Tweets in their entirety, hold down Control, press -, then +, and they should justify.)
- Two police officers have been shot in Ferguson at a protest outside the local police department. The St Louis County police chief Jon Belmar said the police officers were shot “just because they were police officers.” Both officers remain in hospital and no update has been provided on their condition.
- Several shots were fired at the protest. The Webster Grove officer was shot in the face, and the St Louis County officer was shot in the shoulder. At this stage it is not clear where the shots originated from.
- The shooting came just hours after the embattled police chief of Ferguson, Missouri, Thomas Jackson resigned. His department had been accused of racial bias in a scathing report by the US government.
“The St Louis County police chief Jon Belmar, said at the press briefing: “These police officers were standing there and they were shot, just because they were police officers.”
The officers sustained “serious gunshot wounds to face and upper torso”, according to Belmar. One was from St Louis County and one was from Webster Groves.
Asked to confirm protesters’ accounts that the shots were fired from people outside the group of demonstrators, Belmar said: “I don’t know who did the shooting to be honest with you right now, but somehow they were embedded in that group of folks.”
Summary
Here’s some further quotes from the press conference Jon Belmar just held:
We’ve had occasion to be involved in many of the events in Ferguson since Michael Brown was killed and we’ve been very fortunate as we’ve moved forward not to have similar instances like this happen to us.
As I have said all along, we can not sustain this forever without problems – that’s not an indictment on everybody that’s out there expressing their first amendment rights.
But what we have seen in law enforcement that this is a very, very, very dangerous environment for the officers to work in regarding the amount of gunfire that we’ve experienced out there
A St Louis County police spokesman has also told my colleague Jon Swaine: “Both officers are at hospital. No update yet on condition.”
Most Twitter witnesses said that the shots came from across the road, up a hill, yada, yada. But NOT from “embedded protestors”.
The story is developing. A local Fox affiliate: Police have three in custody during hunt for shooters
The video hasn’t hit youtube yet, but it’s worth watching. Some rather baffling text:
“Police swarmed a house in Ferguson, just four blocks from the Ferguson Police Department, where the shooting took place ,according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A tactical team scaled the home and tried to break in through the attic, where they believed one of the suspects may have been hiding. The house is located on Dade Avenue, near Tiffin Avenue.
After breaking through, there was no one found. Two men were however escorted from the home in handcuffs, as well as the woman who rents the home. Police would not comment on the situation.
Family members of the woman tell FOX 2 that the SWAT Team entered their home at 125 South Dade and took possession of a white car for evidence.
The family of the woman tells news 11 that they were at last night’s protest and were part of the peacefully assembly.”
Let Tweeters in Ferguson take it for now:
(I have no idea why everything went thin after “rather baffling text”; sorry.)
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
also tweeting now: https://twitter.com/ShaunKing
i’ll embed a few and hope they won’t appear as skinny as the ones in the OP (wth? with that, anyway?) thanks, marym. i need some zzzleep to get rid of a hegg-ache.
ha! take this, Chief Belmar!
Perhaps they should have kept their Hands UP; at least they’re Still BREATHING!
@bassem_masri · 1h 1 hour ago
Saint Louis county & Missouri Highway patrol to take over security in the city of #Ferguson
odd how contagious the “hand up, don’t shoot” theme is; even mr. wd finds himself saying it now and again.
RT has rather an angry crowd in an earlier video apparently not letting a police vehicle through. There were some officers wearing helmets but none with face shields or armor, though apparently the officer who was shot did wear a vest and presumably they all would be doing so. And these would be not local police apparently – would that be why the crowd was angry? It did not look like a celebration to me, and somebody took advantage of that. I’m unclear why the people were demonstrating.
Well done to the police, I think. They did not respond to a lot of provocation, nonviolent though it could be called. Nor did they, apparently respond with violence when the officers were shot. (And yes, I realize the people of Ferguson have been living a nightmare.)
It is all very sad.
the folks on the ground said that the car (if it’s the same one) was trying to run over the protestors, so…
And yesterday they had said that the pro-police were pissed that the Chief had been forced to resign, and would counter-demonstrate.
added: here’s bassem showing a few of the death threats he’s received lately:
one thing we’ve learned via Operation HoodsOff is how many of the inner circle of the ptb in ferguson are indeed members of The Klan.
second edit: i’ve looked at all the Twit accounts i monitored this a.m., and can’t find the Vine of the car they said tried to mow them down. but those Vines make the page jump around so.
but here is a bit on the naked man the police killed in dekalb county i’d mentioned earlier. clearly he was in the middle of some heavy mental health issues. dangerous? unarmed? i doubt it. another tragedy.
i still can’t find the car vine, but it was like what happened in minneapolis, and michael cavlan gave aid to the young woman who’d been run over (her lower eg, iirc). no ticket given to the driver. these were tweeted 20 hours ago: *before* the cops were shot. the third, i’ve forgotten when, but the time is immaterial.
no one will be surprised by this. remember that three in the ferguson clerk’s office were fired for the same thing:
‘Another Racist Email Forward Found In Scott Walker’s Former Deputy Chief Of Staff Emails; A second racist email forward found in released messages from a former aide to Walker, then the Milwaukee County executive. “That is hilarious. And so true.” ‘
http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/scott-walkers-former-deputy-chief-of-staff-was-queen-of-the#.fwarqa1k7
bruce: i’ve tried to answer your mail twice now (but not with the requisite la la la hushmail questions, codes), but both have been returned via the mail daemon or whatever its called. i wish you’d published both links on an open thread; very worthy additions, imo.
wd
news from ferguson:
loads of press smelling blood, riot cops, etc. the bad news seems to be that bassem masri’s twitter account has been suspended. a very portentous sign…in some direction. send him good thoughts if you can.
have good dreams, and sleep well.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/13/ferguson-police-chief-not-sure-shooter-targeted-officers-protests
“Police searching for the shooter of two officers in Ferguson, Missouri, have backed away from earlier suggestions that the suspect must have directly targeted the victims and was associated with protesters, saying on Friday that this was now unclear.”
#wellwaddayaknow
#wellwaddayaknow, indeed, marym. thank you for that.
on topic: bassem’s twitter account has been suspended; that bodes ill, of course.
of topic: i got word today that it seems as though my.fdl will NOT make the transition to ‘the new servers’ for fdl. i confess that i’m depressed as a Lowly Worm (richard scarry)
anyone who’d like to kick it around in email need only tell me; don’t feel like doin’ it on the boards (for obvious reasons).
remember all the PD lies about how far away wilson was from michael brown? jayzus.
Thanks, wendye – the car business makes more sense to the anger I saw in the rt video. Just goes to show videos can be slanted if you don’t know the context. I saw the same post marym linked at the guardian, quite a bit of backing down in that piece, thankfully. Important statement that it wasn’t clear the policemen were actually the targets. And the folk whose home was raided released with no charges, though it is unclear who will pay for the damage to their home.
bassem masri created a new twitter account while folks help him appeal to twitter to restore his old one. but here is news on the alleged shooter of the two cops, echoed by the toronto sun:
“A 20-year-old man was charged on Sunday with first-degree assault for last week’s shooting of two police officers during a protest in the troubled city Ferguson, Missouri, a crime that fueled a national debate on race and policing.
The suspect, Jeffrey Williams, has admitted to firing the shots and was from the general St. Louis area, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, told a news conference.
“It was not certain if he had been targeting police,” he added. A handgun was recovered in his residence and matched shell casings found at the scene, according to McCulloch, who said although Williams appears to be the only shooter, other people may be charged as the investigation continues.
From fusion.net:
‘Alleged Ferguson shooter says he wasn’t aiming at the police; protesters say they don’t know him’
“The person who shot two police officers in front of the Ferguson Police Department last week admits to firing the gun, but says he wasn’t aiming at the cops, according to St. Louis officials.
Jeffrey Williams, 20, was charged with two counts of first degree assault, one count of firing a weapon from a vehicle, and three counts of armed criminal action, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch said in a news conference.
Williams claimed he was shooting at someone else, possibly because of a personal dispute, McCulloch said.
“We’re not sure we buy that part of it,” McCulloch said. He added that information from the community led to the arrest early Sunday morning.
Police say the shots came from a motor vehicle, and that there were civilians between Williams and the officers he allegedly shot. They say Williams had been participating in the protest that evening before he came back and fired the shots.
Regular demonstrators told The Huffington Post they’ve never seen Williams at a protest.”
http://fusion.net/story/104230/alleged-ferguson-shooter-says-he-wasnt-aiming-at-the-police/
(in a car; NOT ’embedded’ with protestors)
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ferguson-police-20150315-story.html
“Bishop Derrick Robinson, who said he had visited Williams in jail on Sunday, told CNN that Williams claimed he’d been robbed by someone among the demonstrators near the Ferguson Police Department.
“That’s what he told me,” Robinson told CNN.
“I asked him why would he say that he was a protester because it makes us look bad — because so many things that we’ve done to rebuild our community,” Robinson told CNN, adding: “He admitted to me that he’d never protested.” “
well, i guess i’m gonna take him at his word. odd that bassem had said that he could even ‘barely recognize him’. wonder what belmar will say now? folks are circulating a petition asking the city council to fire mayor knowles, it seems. but cripes, so many of the surrounding towns are in the same situation, aren’t they?
ABQ activists held a peoples’ tribunal on police brutality yesterday, but they haven’t published any video or their report yet. i hope they do, and it gets some media coverage.
thanks for that illuminating news, marym.