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Two officers shot in Ferguson

March 12, 2015

Two police officers have been shot outside police headquarters during a protest in Ferguson, Missouri. This comes after the local police chief resigned amid racial tensions.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Ep12
USA Proteste vor der Protesters block a police vehicle from entering the City of Ferguson Police Department and Municipal Court parking lot in Ferguson Missouri, March 11, 2015. REUTERS/Kate Munsch
Image: Reuters/K. Munsch

The two police officers were shot around midnight on Wednesday as demonstrators were gathered outside the Ferguson Police Department just hours after the local police chief, Thomas Jackson, announced his resignation, a US newspaper said on Thursday.

A St. Louis Country Police Department officials said two county officers were shot.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper said police officials were not able to provide details on the officers' injuries. The KSDK radio station reported the officers were taken to a local hospital.

Ferguson last year became the focal point of nationwide protests against alleged racial discrimination by police following the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014.

Jackson became the latest of six officials to step down after a US Justice Department report found widespread racial bias in the Ferguson police department, along with a court system that it accused of disproportionately arresting black residents to increase city revenue.

Thomas Jackson, former Ferguson police chief.
Jackson is the sixth official to step downImage: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The report however cleared Wilson of civil rights charges. He has since left the police department.

tj/sms (AP, Reuters)