The Police Department in Ferguson, Missouri is describing the shooting of two of its police officers as "an ambush."
The officers were shot during the latest round of demonstrations in the St. Louis suburb, this time connected to the release of a federal report which has described systematic racism within the Ferguson police department.
Both officers survived the shooting with non-life threatening injuries.
"We could've buried two police officers next week over this and I didn't really expect the amount of agitation at times that we saw last night out of the crowd based on the news that happened yesterday and not everybody there expressed agitation, but we certainly are always cautious but, I didn't expect, obviously, either that we would have two police officers shot last night," said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar.
A number of people have been taken in for questioning.
However, no arrests have been made.
The turmoil in Ferguson first erupted in August by the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer.
A grand jury failed to indict the officer in that case, leading to wide-spread demonstrations across the United States.
