Man Arrested in Shooting of 2 Ferguson Police Officers

21st Century Wire says…

In a move that almost sent local residents and police into another tailspin, a 20 year old man is said to have fired the shots from a car moving past a building where demonstrators were gathered after the Department of Justice had announce the end of their federal investigation into racial bias in the Ferguson Police Department. 

Nearly 72 hours after two officers were shot in Ferguson, Missouri, and despite protest leaders taking to Twitter to deny he was even there at the time of the incident, investigators appear to have finally tracked down their gunman suspect, named as 20 year old Jeffrey L. Williams.

It appears that Williams was the only person who fired shots, but that other “participants” were involved. Williams 2 counts of assault with a firearm, 1 count firing from vehicle. His 40 caliber weapon recovered matches ballistics from the scene.

According to St. Louis County prosecutor, the suspect maintains that he was firing shots at ‘someone else’ other and did not mean to hit the 2 Ferguson police officers.

Some of the suspect’s social media posts may indicate that he was a regular Ferguson protestor who was also have been present during looting actions against local businesses.

Previously on Thursday, before knowing who the perpetrator was, both President Barack Obama and AG Holder referred to then unknown assailants as “criminals” and “punks”.

Attorney General Eric Holder said of today’s arrest, “sends a clear message that acts of violence against our law enforcement personnel will never be tolerated.”

The investigation is ongoing…

Demonstrator, 20, Is Arrested in the Shooting of 2 Officers in Ferguson

Manny Fernandez and John Eligon
New York Times

FERGUSON, Mo. — A 20-year-old demonstrator was charged Sunday with shooting two police officers during a protest outside Police Headquarters here Thursday. Law enforcement officials said the man, Jeffrey L. Williams, claimed to have been targeting someone other than the officers and shot them by accident from inside a car.

Mr. Williams was arrested late Saturday and charged with first-degree assault in connection with the shooting, which had ratcheted up tensions between the police and protesters here. With the gunman at large, the officers guarding the police station as demonstrations continued had concerns for their safety, while protesters had criticized police officials for suggesting that the shooting was linked to them.

Discord has been simmering since Aug. 9, when a white police officer, Darren Wilson, fatally shot an unarmed, 18-year-old black man, Michael Brown, in a confrontation in the middle of a street. A grand jury declined to indict Mr. Wilson in November.

The arrest seemed to resolve almost none of the tension, and Mr. Williams’s motive was unclear. Prosecutors expressed skepticism at his version of events, but said he had attended the demonstration the evening of the shooting and previous rallies. Several protest leaders, however, quickly took to Twitter to deny that Mr. Williams, who is black, was one of them, or that they had even seen him among the crowd the night of the shooting.

The authorities said Mr. Williams, who was on probation at the time of the shooting for receiving stolen property, admitted his involvement to investigators and acknowledged firing the shots. He told investigators that he had a dispute with some people outside the police station that had nothing to do with the demonstration, officials said.

“It’s possible at this point that he was firing shots at someone other than the police, but struck the police officers,” Robert P. McCulloch, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon at the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in Clayton, Mo., the seat of St. Louis County. “He has stated that he may have had a dispute with some other individuals. I’m not sure we completely buy that part of it. But in any event, it’s possible he was firing at some other people.”

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