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On Sunday morning, St. Louis county prosecutor Robert McCulloch – the same prosecutor who presented the Michael Brown shooting case to the grand jury – announced that there had been an arrest in the shooting and wounding of two police officers outside the Ferguson police station last Thursday.
Jeffrey Williams, 20, is charged with first-degree assault, armed criminal action and shooting a firearm from a motor vehicle causing injury, St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch told reporters, after an intense four-day manhunt.
Jeffrey WIlliams: 20 yrs old. Suspect is on probation for receiving stolen property. He did acknowledge firing the shots. #Ferguson
— St. Louis County PD (@stlcountypd) March 15, 2015
He also had a warrant out for his arrest, as he has failed to check in with his probation officer for the last seven months.
Williams has allegedly confessed to the shooting, but has insisted to investigators that he wasn’t aiming at the police officers.
Williams, who has attended several demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo., told police that he fired shots at someone he had a dispute with, and hit the officers, who he alleges were not his intended target.
McCulloch said Williams’ story of a dispute with another person — including that he did not target the police — is still part of the investigation, which is ongoing.
McCulloch said the .40-caliber handgun that matches the shell casings recovered at the scene of the officers’ shootings was found in Williams’ residence, which police searched after obtaining a warrant based on information received from the public.
Naturally, the protestors are insisting that he was not one of them.
That's not to say he's never protested in Ferguson – literally hundreds maybe thousands have – but safe to say he's not a regular.
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) March 15, 2015
I'm still looking for anyone who has seen or interacted with Jeffrey Williams. So far frequent protesters say they've never seen him.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 15, 2015
Here's the issue: Anyone can say they are a protester and be correct. It's how you self-identify. But was Williams a regular? Don't think so
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 15, 2015
Because the “regular” protestors are just gems of people, like this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs6lp9kAvgw
But, of course, the narrative must be preserved. After originally tweeting this…
Mug shot: Williams was taken into custody without a struggle. Possible he was firing at someone other than police. pic.twitter.com/9f76D587kB
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) March 15, 2015
… we now get this:
According to Robinson, Williams was beaten by police last night, and his chest and body covered in bruises that the minister says he saw
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) March 15, 2015
The “Robinson” being referred to here is Bishop Derrick Robinson, a pastor and frequent protestor, who has spoken with Williams, though he personally does not recognize him from the protests. I’m not sure I can take the word of a convicted felon who just admitted to shooting police officers when it comes to when his bruises appeared.
Now that Williams, aka the “damn punk” has been arrested, Eric Holder is pretty happy with how it all turned out.
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. The ATF’s ballistic imaging technology has played a critical role in the ongoing investigation. I commend both the ATF and St. Louis police for their tremendous work in identifying this suspect.
A lot of back-patting there. How nice, especially after stirring up quite a lot of animosity against the local law enforcement.
Now that the manhunt is over, will peace ever return to Ferguson? Probably not now. Maybe not ever. Officer Darren Wilson was cleared of federal civil rights violations, but false narrative of “hands up, don’t shoot” still lives on, because it sounds so good, and the professional protestors need to keep the embers of oppression stoked and ready.
Appalled By The World says: I wonder how many of these fine folk of Ferguson will fill in the occupation line on their tax forms with “protestor” as this now seems to be an official job based on what people are saying in this article? Then again, how many of these professional protestors will be filing taxes at all?
I especially like how this fine, upstanding youth who no doubt was turning his life around and is an aspiring brain surgeon was supposedly gunning for someone other than the cops. I might have believed that (OK, maybe not) had he shot one cop but two? That’s some mighty bad shooting if he was indeed telling the truth.
OC says: Appalled, not sure how far the two cops were from each other, but it is plausible for a semi-auto, fired from a moving vehicle, fired quickly, could have hit the two cops “by mistake”.
I said plausible, not believable.
I think young Mr. Williams gotz himself a pretty smart lawyer.
OC
Fred says: So what was the weapon used? – a handgun, or a rifle? This story still doesn’t add up.
OC says: Fred, the article said .40 cal. That’s why I assumed a semi-auto.
Also, he was shooting from a moving vehicle, so usually not a long range shot.
OC
Wfjag says: @OC:
Williams is a convicted felon with a firearm, who admits to assaulting an, as yet unidenified someone, with a deadly weapon, and while so doing, recklessly endangered many others, including wounding two. If his lawyer had him admit to that string of felonies, he wasn’t smart enough to tell his client “keep your mouth shut.”
OC says: Wfjag, I couldn’t see anywhere that he is a felon, he was on probation for receiving stolen property.
Admitting to shooting at someone can be easily pleaded down. Admitting to trying to murder two cops, not so much. I think the lawyer came on scene after young Williams ran his mouth some and attempted to curb the damage.
OC
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