ST. LOUIS — Four St. Louis police officers were shot and injured during violent protests in the city Monday night and into early Tuesday morning.

Two of the officers were shot in the leg, one was shot in the foot and the fourth officer was shot in the arm, St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden told reporters outside a hospital at about 2 a.m. Tuesday.


“I believe some coward randomly shot at the police line,” Chief Hayden said giving an impassioned update. He said at this time, police have no suspects and no descriptions of the person or persons who shot the officers.

Hayden said the officers were standing off to the side of the police line when they suddenly felt pain.

“Thankfully, thank God they’re alive,” the police chief said holding back tears. “Can we make some sense out of this? That’s all I’m trying to say.”

A large peaceful protest moved in and around the downtown area until about 8 p.m. Hayden said a much smaller group of about 200 people changed the mood.

“They obviously had no intention on protesting or doing anything constructive,” Chief Hayden said.

He said the rioters were hyping up the crowd, high fiving each other and flashing pistols. He said they started throwing things at officers and then looting all over downtown.

Hayden said officers working to control the agitators had fireworks thrown at them – with some of those exploding on officers – they also had bottles and rocks thrown at them and gas poured on them.

“Officers exhibited extraordinary restraint,” Hayden said, explaining that officers only took measures on the crowd when things got violent outside police headquarters at about 9 p.m. Police in riot gear threw tear gas at the crowd and started moving in lines to break up the rioters.

“There’s a pit in my stomach. I’m stunned. We need to pray for our city and pray for these officers,” Chief Hayden said.

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