ST. LOUIS — A 23-year-old man who St. Louis police say ambushed and opened fire on a uniformed sergeant was arrested Thursday and charged with four felonies in a shooting that the police chief has decried as an attempted assassination.
Prosecutors charged Dale LaVaughn Wolford Jr. with one count each of assault on a law enforcement officer and of shooting a firearm from a motor vehicle, as well as two counts of armed criminal action. He was ordered jailed on $200,000 bond. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Authorities believe Wolford was masked by a bandanna when he emerged from a car occupied by three other men before dawn Tuesday and fired into the private vehicle of the 39-year-old police sergeant. The officer, who was doing department-approved security work in the city's tony Central West End neighborhood, returned fire.
The suspects' car sped away, and the gunman fled on foot.
The police officer was treated at a hospital and released.
The suspected getaway driver, 27-year-old Edward Jerome Davis, remained jailed on $200,000 cash bond Thursday, a day after being charged with felony assault and armed criminal action.
Another suspect, an unidentified 18-year-old, surrendered to police Wednesday and has not been charged. His attorney, Jermaine Wooten, told The Associated Press on Thursday that his client was in the backseat of the car and had no role in the shooting.
Investigators were searching for a fourth suspect.
The motive for the attack was unclear. Police Chief Sam Dotson called it an ambush and said the goal was to "assassinate" the officer who, along with the four suspects, is black.
Court documents identify the officer only as "Sergeant L."
The officer's body armor saved his life, Dotson said.