Racial turmoil in St Louis Missouri continues this week. A 32 year old police officer from Webster Graves, Missouri, was shot in the head and another officer who was 41 years old was shot in the shoulder. However St Louis Police Chief Jon Belmar, says that both officers will survive the attacks. These attacks come a little more than 3 months after 2 Brooklyn police officers were shot and killed in New York City. Both officers were released by the hospital early on Thursday.
These attacks come only a few weeks after Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson was cleared of any wrong doing in the shooting death of an african american teenager Michael Brown. The governor of Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon, said that the acts of violence were “intentional” and that he “asked for the community’s help to stop these shootings.” According to The St Louis Post dispatch, cops swarmed a house in Ferguson looking for suspects. Although their is no official report on why the cops thought these particular individuals were suspects.
St Louis Police, including Police Chief Jon Belmar, expressed gratefulness that the two cop ambush, didn’t result in death like it did for officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in New York City. Their is no doubt that recent racial tensions have been rising in the state of Missouri. City Police Chief Thomas Jackson had to resign on Wednesday, and one day after city manager John Shaw also resigned. This was after a federal report showed that their had been long time racist behavior within The Ferguson Police Department.
According to Belmar, the two police officers were “sitting ducks” and had no way of firing back. This enhances Governor Nixons belief that the attacks were intentional. Their is a belief that the shooter took refuge behind protesters who were at the police station so that the officers wouldn’t be able to see him.
These attacks continue a string of racial tensions that have been going on across the country since Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Florida. Missouri residents are hoping for a peaceful resolution to the violence, as are many other Americans.
Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
