While the second day of protests in Ferguson were far more contained as a result of the tripled presence of national guard troops in the St. Louis suburb, with media instead focusing on events in New York, LA and other major metropolitan centers, St. Louis violence failed to avoid the headlines for another day when shortly before 3 am, two FBI agents were shot early Wednesday morning in north St. Louis County.
Rebecca Wu, an FBI spokeswoman, says the shooting happened at approximately 2:53 a.m. She says two special agents were shot while helping the University City Police Department execute an arrest warrant at a home on North Hanley Road, near Monroe Avenue.
Quoted by USA Today [5], Wu says one agent was shot in the shoulder, the other was shot in the leg. Their injuries are non-life threatening. Police officials say someone is barricaded inside the home.
At least two dozen police and other emergency vehicles responded to the shooting.
Police are looking into the possibility this could be related to an incident late Monday in University City where a police officer was shot in his chest.
The good news according to Reuters [6], is that this latest assault was "not directly related" to racially charged unrest in and around nearby Ferguson, an agency spokeswoman said. "The incident is not directly related to the Ferguson protests," Wu said, but did not elaborate further.
That said, considering how tense the situation in Ferguson - and around the country - already is, somehow we doubt the authorities would voluntarily seek to inflame tensions any further.
