Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


                    Two Policemen Shot in Ferguson, Missouri

   by VOA News

   Two policemen were shot in Ferguson, Missouri early Thursday morning,
   hours after the city's police chief resigned in the wake of a Justice
   Department report accusing the department of racially-biased policing.

   The incident occurred as protesters were gathered outside the Ferguson
   police station. One of the officers is a member of the St. Louis County
   police department, while the other is from a town near Ferguson. St.
   Louis County police chief Jon Belmar told reporters one officer was
   shot in the shoulder, while the other was shot in the face. There has
   been no official word on their condition, but Belmar said the officers
   were conscious and being treated at a local hospital.

   He said the officers were shot "just because they were police
   officers," and added that the shooter was "somehow embedded" in the
   group of demonstrators.

   But witnesses in Ferguson reported that the shots appeared to come from
   a hill across the street from the station. A large number of police
   officers were deployed outside the station moments after the shots rang
   out.

   Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson submitted his resignation
   Wednesday, seven months after Darren Wilson, a white police officer
   fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown during a street
   confrontation last August.

   Jackson became the focus of bitter complaints of racial discrimination
   within his department in the aftermath of Brown's deadly shooting. The
   report by the Justice Department criticized the Ferguson police
   department of bias against the city's black majority, including
   arbitrary traffic stops, arrests and tickets. The report said city
   officials operated its courts as a money-making venture.

   Jackson is the sixth Ferguson official to step down in the wake of the
   Justice Department report. Ferguson's city manager and a municipal
   court judge resigned this week, while a city court clerk and two police
   officers were either dismissed or resigned after they were identified
   in the report of sending racist emails.

   Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, is still reeling from the shooting,
   which set off days of violence in the city. Wilson was not charged by
   the Justice Department with violating Brown's civil rights, and a state
   grand jury failed to bring criminal charges against him.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/two-policemen-shot-in-ferguson/267710
   5.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/two-policemen-shot-in-ferguson/2677105.html