ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Police shot and wounded an armed man early Wednesday not far from the site of a community protest meeting, but officers says the shooting is not related to the civil unrest that has rocked the city of Ferguson for three days over the killing of teenager Michael Brown.
St. Louis County police said they responded to a report about gunfire and four masked men carrying shotguns around 1 a.m. in an unincorporated area of the county.
Police said an officer shot and wounded one of the four who had allegedly pointed a handgun at the him. The suspect was hospitalized in critical condition, KSDK-TV reports. Police said they recovered the handgun at the scene.
In another overnight incident in the area, a woman was wounded in the head in an apparent drive-by shooting. It was unknown if the shooting was related to the protests in the area.
The police shooting occurred about two blocks from St. Mark Family Church, where the Rev. Al Sharpton held a gathering Tuesday night of residents of the largely African-American community who are angered by the shooting death by police Saturday of 18-year-old Brown.
About a mile away, protests erupted for the third night in a row in Ferguson, but were largely peaceful, with several young pulling their shirts up to cover their faces.
A confrontation with police ended with officers once again firing tear gas into the crowd. Police said they were responding to protesters who had thrown bottles at officers, according to CNN.
Tensions increased in the community on Tuesday after authorities backed down on an earlier promise to to release the name of the white police officer who killed the unarmed Brown.
Police, who had promised to make the officer's name public on Tuesday, cite threats against the officer on social media for the delay. They say there is now no timetable for releasing the name off the white officer, who has been on the Ferguson police force for six years.
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"If we come out and say, 'it was this officer,' then he immediately becomes a target," Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said. "We're taking the threats seriously."
Jackson, who said all but three of the police department's 53 officers are white, said the officer involved in the incident had come across Brown and a friend walking in the street.
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Police have said that a scuffle broke out after the officer asked the teens to move. Witnesses say Brown had raised his hands to surrender when the shots were fired. Police have not confirmed that information.
A second witness has told the St. Louis NAACP that Brown did not struggle with the officer inside his patrol car, where the fatal shots were fired. The unidentified person will be interviewed by FBI.
Contributing: Brandie Piper, KSDK
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