ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Two St. Louis police officers were shot after responding to a call late Wednesday.
One officer was shot in the leg and the other in the foot, police spokesman David Marzullo said. Both were being treated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Police Chief Sam Dotson was at the hospital shortly after the shooting and said the officers were talking and seemed to be in good spirits.
Marzullo said the officer shot in the foot is a woman, 31, who has been on the force for six years. The other officer is a man, 26, who has been on the force two years.
A suspect in the shootings was shot several times by the officers and was taken to St. Louis University Hospital, Marzullo said. He was in critical condition.
The shooting happened shortly before 11 p.m. in the 900 block of Elias Avenue in the Baden neighborhood, south of Riverview Boulevard and west of North Broadway.
Dotson said the officers were called to the scene because an alarm was sounding. They arrived at a boarded-up house that had lights on and smoke coming from the chimney.
The suspect confronted the officers and opened fire without warning. The officers returned fire.
The suspect's name was not released but Dotson said he was "known to police."
"It shows the danger that's out there when responding to a call and the prevalence of guns in the hands of criminals," Dotson said.
After the shooting, the chief said, police recovered a gun they believe the suspect used. They also found narcotics that appeared to have been packaged for sale at the scene.
Mayor Francis Slay was also at Barnes after the shooting. He lauded the police officers for their work.
"They're brave, they're strong, they're tough," Slay said. "They're not going to let something like this hold them down."
The Baden neighborhood where the shooting occurred is among those being targeted by police for special patrols.
Police closed streets between the shooting scene and Barnes as the officers were rushed to the hospital.
The shooting is believed to be the first to have wounded two St. Louis officers since Oct. 13, 2010, when two officers were hit in a shootout after a traffic stop in the 4800 block of Enright Avenue.
Patrolman Lucas Roethlisberger was critically wounded; his partner, Patrolman Luke Kallal, then 27, was shot in the thigh. Roethlisberger, then 25, underwent months of rehabilitation after surgery.
Kim Dwayne Cobb Jr., then 20, of the 4700 block of Lewis Place was wounded in the shootout. He pleaded guilty in 2012 to multiple counts of assault on a law enforcement officer and armed criminal action and was sentenced to life in prison.
In April 2011, off-duty St. Louis police officer Daryl Hall, 34, was mistakenly killed by a nightclub bouncer after Hall confronted a gunman in a parking lot next to a nightclub a short distance from Busch Stadium. The gunman was also killed in the exchange.
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