JEFFERSON CITY — State Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, today made the statement, on the floor of the Missouri Senate, relating to the shooting of two police officers in Ferguson:

“Mister President, we woke up this morning to the terrible news that two St. Louis County police officers were shot outside the Ferguson Police Department in the early morning hours and are hospitalized in serious condition.

It appears that at least one of the wounded officers was a constituent of mine, from Webster Groves.

We are told the injuries are not life threatening and certainly hope that is the case. Certainly we all hope these officers will have a full and speedy recovery.

There is still a lot that we do not know about the circumstances of the shootings, but based on the limited and preliminary information available it appears that the shots fired were intended to hit these two officers.

This awful and outrageous development comes in the wake of the announced resignation of the Ferguson police chief yesterday, and almost precisely a week after the United States Department of Justice issued a report on local police practices in Ferguson that has been described by many as scathing.

Mister President, it would be the epitome of understatement to note that tensions have been high in the St. Louis region and even across the country following the shooting death of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 of last year.

Since that time, law enforcement officers from throughout the St. Louis region — including many from the St. Louis County Police Department — have spent seemingly countless long hours protecting the public, including a great many protestors. They have left their homes, parted from their families, to work overtime, off-hour and weekend shifts for weeks and months on end, knowing they were leaving home to face a volatile situation.

And while certain facets of the law enforcement response to Ferguson have themselves been the subject of scrutiny and even criticism, it is absolutely clear that we as a state owe these officers an enormous debt of gratitude for all they have sacrificed and done to keep the public safe, often serving and protecting members of the public who were exercising their constitutionally sacred First Amendment rights of free speech and peaceful assembly.

And now this.

Michael Brown’s life mattered. Black lives matter. All lives matter. And today, it is time for it to be said that officers’ lives matter too.

At this point we do not know but may assume the shooter or shooters remain at large. I call on those responsible to come forward and face justice. I call on those with information to come forward if they have not already. And I call for calm and peace on the part of the public in response to this morning’s news.

We are a nation of laws. We are a nation of freedoms. We have processes, including the legislative and Department of Justice processes, to work to rectify many of the injustices the death of Michael Brown has brought to the fore. I ask that those concerned allow our democratic processes to work, rather than take the law into their own hands.

As we continue to move forward working to address those injustices, let us all remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, teaching of non-violence in the expression of protest. And let us all remember the service and sacrifice of the law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line every day to preserve a peace that allows us to do all of those things.

My heartfelt concern goes out to these officers and their families. We wish them a full recovery. Many thanks to all those who have served and sacrificed — and continue to serve and sacrifice — that we may have the debates that we as a society need to have.

Thank you, Mr. President."