Two St. Louis police officers were shot Saturday night by a suspect who is now barricaded inside a residence.
St. Louis Police Department Chief John Hayden Jr. said officers were responding to a call about gunshots around 6 p.m. Saturday, when a suspect started shooting at them.
“While they’re on the scene, they hear shots, and our first officer, who is very critically injured, and when I say very critically injured, he’s very critically injured, he was shot. He has a head wound. And that officer is down,” Hayden said in an update Saturday night.
“As our brave officers were trying to get him secured, other officers responded to the scene, and another one of our officers was shot in the leg. Both are at area hospitals. Doctors are working feverishly to assist them.”
Hayden said that eight St. Louis police officers have now been shot since June 1.
“Our officers have been going through a lot this summer, as you know. We’ve had a surge in violence,” Hayden said. “These officers, all they’re trying to do is do their job and help a person that’s wounded, and they come under gunfire themselves.”
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Matt Miller, a St. Louis resident, resident who lives nearby where the shooting took place, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that 75-100 officers have gathered in the neighborhood and blocked off streets.
Hayden said a hostage negotiation team is now on the scene.