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.
“It’s kind of really hard to speculate what kind of nexus may or may not have existed between the shooters and any individual who would have been out there,” said Belmar, who had prompted strenuous denials from protesters by saying in the hours after the shootings that the gunman had somehow been “embedded” in a demonstration.
“I would have to imagine that these protesters were among the shooters that shot at the police officers,” Belmar repeated at a press conference later on Thursday morning. Dozens of people had gathered at the police headquarters on Wednesday evening to celebrate the resignation of Thomas Jackson, the city’s police chief, and to demand further reforms.
Belmar is leading the investigation into the shooting of the police officers after his force led the local inquiry into the fatal shooting by a white police officer of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, which led to protests and unrest that spread around other US cities.
In the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s shootings Belmar also appeared adamant that the officers – a 32-year-old from Webster Groves and a 41-year-old from St Louis County – were targeted because of their positions in law enforcement, which has come under sharp criticism in the region since Brown’s death on 9 August.
“These police officers were standing there and they were shot, just because they were police officers,” Belmar said at his first press briefing.
He went on to explain that the shots appeared to be aimed at the police as they were fired “parallel with the ground” and did not ricochet. “I would have to make an assumption that these shots were directed exactly at my police officers,” he said.
At Friday’s press conference Belmar appeared to concede that investigators did not know this for sure, and that the crowd of protesters may even have been the target. While it was “not beyond the realm of possibility” that the officers were directly targeted, he said, they may in fact have been “just kind of in the way”.
Belmar said detectives were following leads suggested by residents. He added that a $10,000 reward fund put up by Crimestoppers had been bolstered by donations from people in the region.
But he confirmed that three Ferguson residents interviewed by the Guardian on Thursday had been released without charge after they were handcuffed and taken in for questioning following a raid on their home close to the police department. However he was unapologetic for the dawn swoop, which left their home damaged, saying that such fruitless inquiries following from tip-offs were a typical part of policing.
The police chief declined to be drawn on speculation over the calibre of ammunition that was used by the shooter. Detectives recovered shell casings from the area but it remained unclear whether these were relevant to the inquiry or remnants of past shootings.
Jeff Roorda, a former state legislator and spokesman for the St Louis Police Officers’ Association, told MSNBC on Friday morning that “a 40-calibre, it appears, is what they were shot with”. Such rounds can be fired by some rifles in addition to pistols.
“We don’t know yet,” Belmar said when asked about the equipment used. “I can’t say with any sort of conviction whether I have a 9mm or 22 or a 40-calibre or 45 at this point.” Deflecting suggestions that the shots bore the signs of a sophisticated shooter, Belmar said the suspect was probably not a “marksman somewhere out there with a scope.” However, he added, it “may turn out to be”.
