FERGUSON, Mo. _ Jeffrey Williams, accused of shooting and wounding two police officers at a Ferguson protest March 12, was convicted Thursday of multiple charges.
A St. Louis County Circuit Court jury deliberated two hours before finding him guilty of two counts of first-degree assault, three counts of armed criminal action and one count of unlawful use of a weapon, for shooting from a vehicle. Sentencing will be Jan. 27.
A St. Louis County officer, 41, was hit in the shoulder, and a Webster Groves officer, 32, was hit in the cheek on a security line outside the Ferguson police station.
Williams, then 21, was charged in March.
Protesters had gathered upon the announcement that Police Chief Thomas Jackson, who was in charge of the department at the time of the Michael Brown Jr. shooting, was resigning. They were beginning to break up when shots rang out.
"Three shots were believed to have been fired from about 125 yards away, on Tiffin Avenue."
Police said that Williams admitted firing the shots and that a .40 caliber pistol recovered from his home was matched to shell casings at the scene.
In a recording of jail phone calls obtained by Associated Press, Williams is heard telling someone that he fired at people with whom he was having trouble _ not the officers.
"Nobody aiming at no police," he says, "I ran up the hill and he (an unidentified person) shot at the car. ... I shot back."
