Suspect shot in Jennings after shooting at St. Louis officers, police say

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A St. Louis County police officer shot a suspect in Jennings after a pursuit Tuesday morning. The suspect and two others had fled there from St. Louis after shooting at a marked police vehicle, police said. Officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department responded to looting in the area of Natural Bridge and Union Tuesday morning, said St. Louis County Police Department Spokesperson Ben Granda said during a Tuesday press conference. When they arrived, a maroon Chevy Impala began shooting at a marked police vehicle. St. Louis police pursued the car and were later joined by St. Louis County officers. The pursuit ended in a dead-end on the 7300 block of Esterbrook Drive in Jennings shortly after 2:30 a.m. “I believe the suspects when they entered the dead-end didn’t know it," police said. Three people got out of the car and started running toward a wooded area. One of the suspects, a 21-year-old, was shot by an officer who was acting in defense of his life, Granda said. The suspect was taken to a hospital for life-saving treatment. No officers were injured, police said. A 25-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene and the third suspect was able to escape. Police were searching the wooded area Tuesday morning. The officer who shot the suspect is 39 years old with 5 years of law-enforcement experience. "The incredible levels of violence that we saw last night are remarkable and should be unsettling to everyone that calls this place home," Granda said. “The fact that we’ve lost no lives is remarkable, and I don’t know that we can withstand another night like this without any loss of life. Hopefully this suspect lives.... The fact that we’ve got no policemen dead is incredible.” In an unrelated incident, four St. Louis officers were shot overnight during riots over the death of George Floyd. They were all taken to the hospital and expected to survive, St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden said. “I believe some coward randomly shot at the police line,” Chief Hayden told reporters outside a hospital at around 2 a.m.