Ferguson protesters: The shots didn't come from us

Police don’t know who shot two police officers in front of the Ferguson Police Department on Wednesday night, according to the St. Louis County police chief.

The two officers were shot during a protest spurred by the resignation of former Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson, who stepped down with a year’s pay after a scathing Department of Justice report showed that the city’s police force had a racial bias against black residents.

The protests had been largely peaceful, and the demonstrators gathered were to “quick to point out that the gunfire did not come from among them, rather from a distance behind them,” The New York Times reported.

Witnesses told the Times that the shots came from the top of a hill about 200 yards across from the police station.

Police shine a light on a helmet as they investigate the scene where two police officers were shot in Ferguson, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

“The only gunshots that we’re aware of were taken from across the street,” said Jon Belmar, the St. Louis County police chief, according to ABC News. “They weren’t skip shots and we have to make an assumption that these shots were directed exactly at my police officers.”

“I’ve said all along that we cannot sustain this forever without problems,” Belmar said at a press conference, referring to the tensions between police and the community that have been ratcheting up since the shooting death of Michael Brown in August.

The officers were not identified by name, but some details were released: One Webster Groves officer is 32. The other, a St. Louis County officer, is 41. Their injuries are not life-threatening, according to a St. Louis County police spokesman.

In video posted from the scene of the shooting, police are seen asking for evidence from a wary group of protesters.

https://twitter.com/typ0sh/status/575904724546818048

This vine appears to have been taken in the immediate aftermath: