Ferguson police chief not sure if shooter targeted officers or link to protesters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Ferguson police chief not sure if shooter targeted officers or link to protesters

Chief Jon Belmar ‘honestly couldn’t tell you for sure’ but remains unapologetic
about raid as police still have no suspects in shootings of two officers

Jon Swaine in Ferguson
Friday 13 March 2015 23.07 GMT

Police searching for the shooter of two officers in Ferguson, Missouri, have backed away from earlier suggestions that the suspect must have directly targeted the victims and was associated with protesters, saying on Friday that this was now unclear.

Chief Jon Belmar of the St Louis County Police department said at a press conference that he “honestly couldn’t tell you for sure” whether the person who shot one officer in the face and another in the shoulder on Wednesday night was linked to demonstrators at Ferguson’s police station.

Belmar told reporters that investigators had no suspects in custody for the shootings of the still-unnamed officers, who he said were “remarkably well”. However he said detectives were pursuing “scores of tips” passed on by cooperative people in the city.

But the police chief appeared to concede that investigators were now less certain of the shooter’s motives – and connections with protesters – than had previously been suggested.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/13/ferguson-police-chief-not-sure-shooter-targeted-officers-protests

[Howler]

1. typical that the protesters

Are always the first to get blamed. That happened when the new York cops were shot and killed too.sigh.

[underpants]

2. Police officials in the St. Luois area are horrible. Of course they don't know the motive...

...they have to interrogate to find that out.

They seriously have no one yet? In the age of videos everywhere they haven't linked eye witness accounts with at least a car?

[WDIM]

3. from the account I read

It was obvious the police knew right away the shots came from an area away from the protesters. Otherwise every protester would of been arrested and searched and questioned but most were allowed to leave.

[RobertEarl]

4. It was an American sniper