Update: 20-year-old charged in Ferguson police shooting

A 20-year-old man from the St. Louis area was arrested and charged Sunday in connection with last week’s shooting of two police officers following a late-night protest in Ferguson, Mo.

Jeffrey Williams is seen in an undated booking photo. Williams has been arrested and charged in connection with last week’s shooting of police officers in Ferguson, Mo. Credit: REUTERS/St. Louis County Police Department/Handout

Jeffrey Williams has been charged with two counts of assault in the first degree, one count of firing a weapon from a vehicle and three counts of armed criminal action, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch said at a press conference.

McCulloch credited the public’s cooperation as helping lead to the arrest of Williams, an African-American man on probation for possession of stolen property.

Addressing reporters, McCulloch said Williams acknowledged his participation in the shooting, although it was unclear who the intended target of the shots may have been.

“It was not certain if he had been targeting police,” McCulloch said.

In response to Williams’ arrest, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder released the following statement:

This arrest sends a clear message that acts of violence against our law enforcement personnel will never be tolerated. The swiftness of this action is a credit to the significant cooperation between federal authorities and the St. Louis County Police Department… In the days ahead, we will continue to partner with the authorities in St. Louis County to secure justice for all those affected by this heinous and cowardly crime. And we will continue to stand vigilant in support of public safety officers and the communities they serve.

Holder had previously warned that any attacks on police could threaten progress in Ferguson.

“This wasn’t someone trying to bring healing to Ferguson,” he said. “This was a damn punk, a punk who was trying to sow discord in an area that is trying to get its act together and trying to bring together a community that has been fractured for too long.”

Two officers were injured by the shooting early Thursday, which took place outside the Ferguson police department. One officer was struck in the face and another was hit in the shoulder. Both were released from the hospital following treatment.

Bradley Rayford, a witness to the shooting, said on Thursday’s PBS NewsHour that he heard “what sounded like a firecracker” when the shots went off.

“We looked up to the top of the hill, and we saw two or three more actual gunshot — flares from the muzzle of a gun firing towards the officers,” he said.

St. Louis Police Chief Jon Belmar called the attack “an ambush.”

“You can’t see it coming,” he said. “You don’t understand that it’s going to happen, and you’re basically defenseless from the fact that it is happening to you at the time.”