Quote: A Ballwin Police officer was in critical condition after he was shot in the neck during a traffic stop late Friday morning, police said.

The officer had stopped the car for speeding on northbound New Ballwin Road about 11 a.m., police said. As the officer went back to his car, the driver got out, "advanced quickly" and fired three shots at the officer, police said.

Said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar: "Make no mistake, we believe that Ballwin officer was ambushed."

The gunman fled north on New Ballwin Road and was captured in Manchester several miles northeast of the shooting scene, after jumping out of the car and running, police said.

Quote:The male officer was taken to Mercy Hospital St. Louis, in Creve Coeur, where he was in critical but stable condition, "fighting for his life," Ballwin Chief Kevin Scott said at an emotional press conference Friday afternoon.

"Today my heart aches for men and women of Ballwin police department and the entire law enforcement family," Scott said.

The officer had radioed in that he was stopping a car. Then 911 dispatchers began getting reports of an officer shot, police said.

An in-car camera caught the shooting on video, Scott said. He urged anyone with any video of the incident to call police.

The suspect, 31, had a weapons violation out of St. Louis, for which he was put on probation. he was given probation for a stolen vehicle charge in Oklahoma in 2011. He was picked up as a felon in possession of a firearm in California and paroled in March 2015. His name will be released once warrants are issued, police said.

Quote:St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger called it a "tragic act."

"We want them to know we appreciate work they do and risk they take every day," he said of police. "We stand by those who have stood by us during difficult times like this."

Belmar, the St. Louis County chief, said his department has gone to 12-hour days throughout the weekend as result of heightened sense of alert after all that has happened nationally and now locally.

"We need somebody out there to meet us halfway, because it is very difficult for police officers to do their jobs now," Belmar said. "At some point we need to tone down the rhetoric."

(07-08-2016 05:31 PM)BuffaloTN Wrote:  We are about to become Brazil. Enjoy your ghettos.

Quote:Antonio Taylor, a 31-year-old black man who was paroled in 2015 after serving time on a federal weapons charge, was charged with assault of a police officer, armed criminal action and a felon in possession of a firearm, St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch said Friday.

(07-09-2016 09:57 AM)Hood-rich Wrote:  Good Lord, how many is that 4 or 5 ambushed now AFTER Dallas?