ST. LOUIS — A man shooting guns in a north St. Louis neighborhood ended up shooting one of them at a police vehicle, leading officers to return fire, St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden explained early Thursday morning.
The suspect suffered critical injuries.
Police received multiple calls for a shooting at about 4:05 a.m. Thursday in the area of Marcus and Farlin avenues, which is in the Penrose neighborhood.
Officers arrived to find a man holding what the police chief described as a "pistol-grip type stock barrel rifle." The officers asked the man to drop the gun but instead he turned around and fired shots at the police car, Hayden said.
One of the officers fired back and hit the man in his upper torso. The man tried to run away but collapsed near a house in the 4700 block of Kossuth. He was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition. His vital signs were stable, Hayden said.
Near the scene of where the man collapsed, police said they found two more guns on a front porch: an assault rifle and a pistol. They also found more than 40 shell casings near the porch.
St. Louis police released photos of the guns and some of the ammunition they recovered.
Chief Hayden said investigators are on the scene working to figure out a motive behind the shooting. Police said the man is in his 30s. At a minimum, police will seek a charge for firing shots at an officer, Hayden said.
The officers were not injured, but Hayden said it was a close call. The officers' patrol car was hit with bullets in the hood area about 2-3 feet away from where one of them was standing.
“Very thankful the officers weren’t struck,” Hayden told reporters at the scene. “This is just a very challenging time for us. There seems to be more and more brazen activity. It’s a very difficult time to be a police officer.”
Police are checking with neighbors to make sure no one else was injured. Police did not know of any other injuries as of Thursday morning.
The St. Louis police department's force investigation unit is handling the investigation.
You can watch Police Chief John Hayden's full news conference from Thursday morning in the video player below.
This is a developing story and will be updated when more information is confirmed.