Two officers shot in Ferguson

Two police officers were shot outside of the Ferguson police department early Thursday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The incident took place as police were confronting protestors who were outside of the station. Ferguson Lt. Col. Al Eickhoff, the acting police chief, said he did not know the condition of the officers, and did not believe they were from the Ferguson force; a police source told the Post-Dispatch one was from St. Louis County and the other was a Webster Groves officer. Witnesses reported hearing two to four shots.

Update: Several witnesses tell the Los Angeles Times that the shots came from behind the protesters, up the hill in a dark area. Before the shots whizzed past, the protest "was really pretty mellow," with 50 or so people "standing around talking" in a parking lot across from the police station, said Rev. Mike Kinman, a 46-year-old Episcopal priest. Then, when the shots were fired, "a bunch of officers went down to the ground, and there was one that just didn't move." The two officers are at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

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