The two officers shot in Ferguson, Mo., this week may have been unintended victims, according to the confession of a 20-year-old man who said he pulled the trigger but was not aiming at the police.
Police on Sunday charged Jeffrey Leehoust Williams of St. Louis County in the shooting Thursday that seriously wounded two officers during a protest in Ferguson.
According to a criminal complaint, Williams was in an older model Pontiac Grand Am just after midnight when he fired three shots in the direction of the Ferguson Police Department. Two of the three shots struck officers standing in a police riot line.
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.Shooting suspect Jeffrey Williams. (St. Louis Co. Jail/WSJ).
Shooting suspect Jeffrey Williams. (St. Louis Co. Jail/WSJ).
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch told reporters Sunday afternoon that Williams claims police were not the intended targets. Williams told investigators he was involved in a feud at the time and had fired the shots in connection with that dispute, according to McCulloch.
“I’m not sure we completely buy that part of it,” the prosecutor said. “I wouldn't say he wasn't targeting police. I’m saying right now the evidence we have supports filing the charge that he may have been shooting at someone other than police and struck the police.”
McCulloch said some statements made by Williams are supported by physical evidence, but others aren't.
A .40-caliber gun officers recovered when they arrested Williams about 10:30 p.m. Saturday matches shell casings from the scene, police said. The shots were heard and were believed to have been fired from about 125 yards away, across the street from the Police Department.
St. Louis County Police Chief John Belmar initially described the shooting as an “ambush” and said he felt confident the “shots were directed exactly at my officers.”
But on Sunday, McCulloch acknowledged: “it is possible that he was firing at someone other than the police.”