ST. LOUIS (KMOX/AP) — The ninth police officer was shot this year in the city of St. Louis, this time while under heavy gunfire with his partner in north St. Louis Sunday night. Police were searching Monday for a suspect or suspects in the shooting that happened as officers were trying to make a traffic stop.
Officers had pulled over a car just before 9:30 p.m. Sunday in north St. Louis when the car sped off and officers gave chase, officials with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said. At least one person inside the fleeing car began shooting at the police car, and a bullet went through the police car’s windshield and hit an officer in the right shoulder, officials said.
"This is an unprecedented amount of violence against police that we are experiencing in St. Louis right now."
The incident happened shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday in the Greater Ville neighborhood after a car crash.
Hayden says two men in one of the crashed cars fled the scene on foot. A police officer responding to the crash reported seeing two men running and chased them in his squad car.
The officer said one of the men turned and pointed a gun at him, and the officer shot the man, who was taken to the hospital for treatment.
The officer, whose name has not been released, is on administrative leave.