Suspect charged in shooting of police officers in Ferguson, Missouri

A 20-year-old man was charged on March 15 with first-degree assault in last week's shooting of two policemen during a protest rally in Ferguson, Missouri, a crime that shocked a city that has been devastated by months of racial strife.
   
The suspect, Jeffrey Williams, has admitted to firing the shots that wounded the officers early on Thursday, said St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch.
   
The gunfire rang out just after midnight at the end of a rally to call for sweeping reforms in Ferguson, where an unarmed black teenager was shot to death by a white officer last summer.
   
Eighteen-year-old Michael Brown's death touched off months of protests against law enforcement's treatment of minority groups, in Ferguson and around the country, and led to a U.S. Justice Department probe that found pervasive racial bias on the part of the city's mostly white police force.
   
Williams was arrested after a massive manhunt, with the help of tips from the public and video evidence, McCulloch told a news conference.
   
An African American who had been on probation for possession of stolen property, Williams told investigators that he was not targeting police but was shooting at someone else, McCulloch added.
  
A county police officer, 41, suffered a shoulder wound and a 32-year-old from a nearby police department sustained a facial wound in Thursday's shooting. Both were treated and released by a local hospital.
   
Williams, whose bond was set at $300,000, appears to have fired a .40 caliber handgun from a car, McCulloch said.
  
A handgun was recovered in his residence and matched shell casings found at the scene, according to McCulloch, who said that although Williams...