UPDATED at 2:55 p.m. with highway patrol, St. Louis County police taking over protest security in Ferguson beginning tonight; rewards being offered. 
 
 FERGUSON • The Missouri Highway Patrol and St. Louis County Police will take over Ferguson protest security Thursday night after two police officers were shot outside the police department there early Thursday morning. 
 
 Ferguson police will continue to handle routine policing services in the city, St. Louis County Police said in a statement Thursday afternoon. 
 
 The two officers shot early Thursday are expected to survive, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said. They were treated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and released Thursday, though one still had a bullet lodged behind his ear. 
 
 Belmar called the shooting as protests outside the department dwindled an "ambush" on police. At least three shots were fired at police just after midnight as police faced protesters who had gathered outside the police station, police said. 
 
 On Thursday morning, officers swarmed a home in Ferguson in their search for those responsible for the shooting of the two police officers. 
 
 Tactical officers surrounded a brick bungalow on Dade Avenue near Tiffin Avenue. The home is about four blocks west of the police department. Officers went in with dogs about 9:30 a.m. A neighbor said he saw police bring two men out of the home. The woman who neighbors say rents the home was also brought out in handcuffs. 
 
 Police said they were questioning the three but they were not under arrest. They declined to provide further details. 
 
 Martez Little, 25, of north St. Louis County, said he was in a car Wednesday night near the Ferguson police station with the woman taken into custody Thursday. Little said they witnessed the shooting. 
 
 "Bullets were flying past us," Little said. "We heard them whistling by and saw two officers drop to their knees." 
 
 Immediately after the shooting, Little said he put his hands up and showed police his waistband to make sure they knew he was not armed. 
 
 "The shots were coming off a hill but we didn't see nobody shooting," he said. 
 
 He said he went to the protest because he still has questions about the shooting of Michael Brown, but called the shooting of the officers wrong. 
 
 OFFICERS RELEASED AFTER TREATMENT 
 
 Belmar discussed the shootings Thursday morning at the St. Louis County Police Commissioners board room. He said one officer injured in the shooting was with his department. The other is a Webster Groves Police officer. Both were treated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, but have been released. 
 
 The Webster Groves officer was shot just below his right eye and that the bullet was lodged just below the officer's right ear, Belmar said. That officer is 32 and has been on the force for five years. 
 
 The bullet that hit the county officer in the right shoulder exited from the right side of his back, Belmar said. That officer is 41 and has been in law enforcement for 14 years. 
 
 Belmar said he believes the shots came from a handgun, not a rifle, based on the injuries and the sound of the shots. 
 
 The chief said no suspects have been identified in the shootings but that detectives recovered shell casings near the scene. He said it was not clear if those shell casings were from the shooting. He said some witnesses have been "forthright" in helping police with the investigation. 
 
 "We're lucky by God's grace that we didn't lose those two officers last night," Belmar said. "We could have buried two police officers next week because of this." 
 
 The officers had been standing in a line of about 25 officers when the shots were fired. The gunfire came from the area of a parking lot about 125 yards away and were "parallel to the ground," Belmar said, leading him to believe the officers were targeted. 
 
 "When you listen to the audio (in video from the scene), you can actually hear those shots singing," Belmar said. 
 
 The chief said that 60-70 protesters had come to the Ferguson Police Department earlier in the night, some of them blocking roads and sidewalks. The protests prompted police departments to send officers, some in riot gear. At least three arrests were made during the protests before the shots were fired. That came later in the night as the protest began to dwindle. 
 
 Belmar said he felt police have been fortunate since protests erupted in Ferguson in August after the police shooting of Michael Brown in that officers patrolling those protests have not been injured. 
 
 "I think it's a miracle that we haven't had any instances such as this over the summer and fall," Belmar said Thursday. 
 
 The chief said one of the biggest challenges facing police on the protest lines is discerning peaceful protesters from troublemakers. 
 
 "This is another layer that makes it very difficult for our officers out there," he said. 
 
 Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement Thursday offering the Justice Department's "full range of investigative resources." He noted that "Such senseless acts of violence threaten the very reforms that nonviolent protesters in Ferguson and around the country have been working towards for the past several months." 
 
 Speaking later Thursday, Holder described the shooting as the actions of a "damn punk" who was "trying to sow discord." 
 
 LEADERS REACT, REWARDS OFFERED 
 
 CrimeStoppers is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the shooting. They asked anyone with information to call 1-866-371-8477. Tipsters can remain anonymous, and tips can also be submitted online at www.stlrcs.org or texted along with "STL" to 274637. 
 
 U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, added a $3,000 reward for information in the shooting. 
 
 “I completely condemn the cowardly ambush of the brave officers who were wounded last night in Ferguson,” Clay said in a joint statement with Cleaver. “I ask everyone to join me in prayers for their swift recovery and for healing in our community. The path of violence does not lead to justice.” 
 
 Added Cleaver in the statement: “What happened in Ferguson last night was a terrible tragedy, and we cannot stand idly by as others transgress. We encourage anyone who has information to come forward.” 
 
 Other politicians responded with messages about the shootings Thursday. 
 
 "Violence against police is unacceptable," President Barack Obama tweeted from the @WhiteHouse account. "Our prayers are with the officers in MO. Path to justice is one all of us must travel together." 
 
 U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he had been notified of the shooting overnight, and that he had talked with both Belmar and with Department of Justice officials about the shootings Thursday morning. 
 
 He said the shooting showed the dangers confronted by police, and Blunt used that point to assert that police had not overreacted initially after the Aug. 9 shooting. Blunt said claims that there had been police "militarization" in Ferguson were "totally fact free." 
 
 "The police are trying to get home to their families alive," Blunt said. "They have a hard job to do." 
 
 And U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., called the shootings "a criminal act that jeopardized the lives of police officers and protesters both. I hope the officers have a full recovery and pray for them and their families. It's time for healing and reform, and acts of violence have no place in this process." 
 
 Gov. Jay Nixon also released a statement. "My thoughts and prayers go out to these brave officers and their families," the statement said in part. "Each day, our law enforcement officers risk their lives to protect the public and the fact that these officers appear to have been intentionally targeted is deeply troubling." 
 
 He said the Missouri Highway Patrol has been in contact with St. Louis County Police and troopers stand ready to help. 
 
 "It is imperative that anyone with information about the shooting immediately come forward so that those who perpetrated these senseless crimes can be apprehended and brought to justice,” Nixon said in the statement. 
 
 Ferguson Councilwoman Kim Tihen, woke to the news that two officers had been shot. 
 
 "I'm concerned about escalating violence, especially against our officers," she said. "They've endured so much stress already." 
 
 Tihen, who spent four years as a Ferguson police officer, now works as a detective in another municipality. She represents the First Ward in Ferguson, which is on the northeast side of town. She has been on the council about three years. 
 
 "We want peace in our community," she said. 
 
 With all of the big changes at the top, namely the resignations of the police chief and city manager, Tihen said she wonders what would satisfy the protesters. 
 
 "I'm not sure what more they want," she said. "I would like to ask them come to us, tell us what we can do to continue to heal the community." 
 
 "We are willing to work with them, the protesters in general," she said. 
 
 SPECIAL REPORT: Post-Dispatch special report on Ferguson 
 
 TIMELINE: The events as they unfolded 
 
 PROTESTS DWINDLE, THEN SHOTS RING OUT 
 
 The gunfire was captured on video by some of those at the scene. 
 
 After the shots were fired, the scene turned chaotic. Some protesters dropped to the ground. Others fled the scene. 
 
 Several members of the media, including a Post-Dispatch reporter and photographer, were near the officers who were shot. 
 
 Media and police ran behind two brick walls and officers pulled out their weapons. Then a line of police cars from more than a dozen departments arrived. 
 
 Police closed South Florissant Road in front of the police station and cordoned a section of the area off with crime scene tape. 
 
 Belmar said the shots were fired from across Florissant Road, northwest of the police department. Witnesses said the shots appeared to come from the direction of a block of homes on Tiffin Avenue that intersects South Florissant Road, where the police department is located. 
 
 Bradley Rayford, a freelance journalist who has been reporting from Ferguson since the unrest began there last summer, said he saw three or four muzzle flashes from the crest of Tiffin Avenue, a residential neighborhood with large century-old homes atop a hill that overlooks the police station." 
 
 He was in front of the police line on South Florissant at the time. He said he couldn't tell if the shots were being fired from a vehicle. 
 
 At 2:30 a.m. a contingent of about 25 officers ascended the hill and began scouring the front yard of a home directly behind a tire business, their flashlights sweeping in arcs as they searched for evidence. 
 
 The gunfire rang out as the protests seemed to be dwindling. 
 
 About 25 protesters remained at the scene about two hours after the shooting. Police wouldn't let them leave until they gave statements. 
 
 The protesters seemed to be two camps. The first were there to make a point that they weren't satisfied with the resignations of City Manager John Shaw and Police Chief Thomas Jackson. They were chanting in unison. 
 
 The other one was volatile, angry, hurling profanities at the police, media and other protesters. Some skirmishes broke out among the factions. 
 
 At least two people were taken into custody, but those arrests occurred before the gunfire erupted. 
 
 Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-8477. 
 
 Live updates: Tweets from reporters in Ferguson 
 
 Gallery: Images from the protests and the shooting aftermath 
 
 Video: Eyewitness reporter describes shootings 
 
 Video: Chief Jon Belmar discusses the shootings 
 
 Susan Weich, Christine Byers, Paul Hampel, Kim Bell and Joel Currier, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this story. 
 
 Story is developing. Check back for details. ||||| FERGUSON • A candlelight vigil organized “for all who mourn” drew dozens of people Thursday night to a spot just yards from where two police officers were shot hours earlier. 
 
 Authorities called the shootings — which escalated tension in an already jittery city — an “ambush.” 
 
 But despite canvassing nearby neighborhoods for hours — at one point zeroing in on a single nearby residence — no arrests had been announced by late in the day. 
 
 The two officers shot were treated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and released, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said. 
 
 One officer injured in the shooting was with Belmar’s department. The other is a Webster Groves police officer. 
 
 The Webster Groves officer was shot just below his right eye. Though the officer was released from the hospital Thursday, the bullet remained lodged just below his right ear, Belmar said. That officer is 32 and has been on the force for five years. 
 
 The bullet that hit the county officer in the right shoulder exited from the right side of his back, Belmar said. That officer is 41 and has been in law enforcement for 14 years. 
 
 At Thursday night’s vigil, the Rev. Traci D. Blackmon, who organized the event, prayed for the police officers in a service that also featured a small choir. 
 
 But Blackmon also vowed to continue the protests that began with the shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9. 
 
 “Over 200 days later and we’re still standing,” said Blackmon, of Christ the King United Church of Christ, who has been a fixture of the protests. “We cannot be moved and will not give up.” 
 
 Earlier in the day, Blackmon and more than two dozen other clergy members issued a statement speaking out against the shooting of police. 
 
 “We bear witness that last night’s shooters were not part of the protesting community. We condemn the actions they took to put first responders and peaceful protesters in harm’s way,” read the statement. “Last night’s events do not bring us closer to the goals of our movement, which has been rooted in the principles of nonviolent direct action.” 
 
 Protests had been light Thursday evening, but crowds built to several dozen people following the vigil. 
 
 About 11:30 p.m., as a drizzle grew heavier, the organizers gathered the protesters to “formally dismiss” them. The demonstration then came to a quiet end, with protesters departing and no reports of violence or arrests. 
 
 The Missouri Highway Patrol and St. Louis County police took over Ferguson protest security Thursday night. Ferguson police continued to handle routine policing in the city, St. Louis County police said. 
 
 Early Thursday, just after midnight, authorities say at least three shots were fired at police following several hours of protests outside the Ferguson police station. 
 
 Many had expected a peaceful night, given the resignation earlier in the day by Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson. Many protesters had called for Jackson’s ouster. 
 
 Instead, as the shots were fired, the scene turned chaotic. Some protesters dropped to the ground. Others fled, as the gunfire was captured on video. 
 
 “Bullets were flying past us,” said Martez Little, 25, of north St. Louis County, who said he witnessed the shooting. “We heard them whistling by and saw two officers drop to their knees ... The shots were coming off a hill, but we didn’t see nobody shooting.” 
 
 The two officers who were shot had been standing in a line of about 25 officers. The gunfire came from the area of a parking lot about 125 yards away and were “parallel to the ground,” Belmar said, leading him to believe the officers were targeted. 
 
 “When you listen to the audio (in video from the scene), you can actually hear those shots singing,” Belmar said. 
 
 The shootings were condemned Thursday by a wide range of public officials, including President Barack Obama. 
 
 “Violence against police is unacceptable,” Obama tweeted from the @WhiteHouse Twitter account. “Our prayers are with the officers in MO. Path to justice is one all of us must travel together.” 
 
 Gov. Jay Nixon also released a statement. “Each day, our law enforcement officers risk their lives to protect the public, and the fact that these officers appear to have been intentionally targeted is deeply troubling,” the statement read in part. 
 
 THE INVESTIGATION 
 
 Belmar said he believes the shots came from a handgun, not a rifle, based on the injuries and the sound of the shots. 
 
 The chief said no suspects have been identified but that detectives recovered shell casings near the scene. He said it was not clear whether those shell casings were from the shooting. He said some witnesses have been “forthright” in helping police with the investigation. 
 
 “We’re lucky by God’s grace that we didn’t lose those two officers last night,” Belmar said. “We could have buried two police officers next week because of this.” 
 
 On Thursday morning, officers swarmed a home in Ferguson in their search for a gunman. 
 
 Tactical officers surrounded a brick bungalow on Dade Avenue near Tiffin Avenue. The home is about four blocks west of the police station. Officers went in with dogs about 9:30 a.m. A neighbor said he saw police bring two men out of the home. The woman who neighbors say rents the home was also brought out in handcuffs. 
 
 Police said they were questioning the three but that they were not under arrest. They declined to provide further details. 
 
 Belmar said he felt police had been fortunate since protests erupted in Ferguson in August after the shooting of Brown in that officers patrolling those protests have not been injured. 
 
 “I think it’s a miracle that we haven’t had any instances such as this over the summer and fall,” Belmar said Thursday. 
 
 The chief said one of the biggest challenges facing police on the protest lines is discerning peaceful protesters from troublemakers. 
 
 “This is another layer that makes it very difficult for our officers out there,” he said. 
 
 REWARDS AND REACTION 
 
 CrimeStoppers is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the shooting. 
 
 U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, added a $3,000 reward for information. 
 
 “I completely condemn the cowardly ambush of the brave officers who were wounded last night in Ferguson,” Clay said in a joint statement with Cleaver. “I ask everyone to join me in prayers for their swift recovery and for healing in our community. The path of violence does not lead to justice.” 
 
 Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement offering the Justice Department’s “full range of investigative resources.” He noted that “Such senseless acts of violence threaten the very reforms that nonviolent protesters in Ferguson and around the country have been working towards for the past several months.” 
 
 Speaking later Thursday, Holder described the shooting as the actions of a “damn punk” who was “trying to sow discord.” 
 
 U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said the shooting showed the dangers confronted by police, and Blunt used that point to assert that police had not overreacted initially after the Aug. 9 shooting. Blunt said claims that there had been police “militarization” in Ferguson were “totally fact-free.” 
 
 “The police are trying to get home to their families alive,” Blunt said. “They have a hard job to do.” 
 
 And U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., called the shootings “a criminal act that jeopardized the lives of police officers and protesters both. I hope the officers have a full recovery and pray for them and their families. It’s time for healing and reform, and acts of violence have no place in this process.” 
 
 Ferguson Councilwoman Kim Tihen woke to the news that two officers had been shot. 
 
 “I’m concerned about escalating violence, especially against our officers,” she said. “They’ve endured so much stress already.” 
 
 Tihen, who spent four years as a Ferguson police officer, now works as a detective in another municipality. She represents the First Ward in Ferguson, which is on the northeast side of town. She has been on the council about three years. 
 
 “We want peace in our community,” she said. 
 
 With all of the big changes at the top of Ferguson government, namely the resignations of Police Chief Jackson and City Manager John Shaw, Tihen said she wonders what would satisfy the protesters. 
 
 “I’m not sure what more they want,” she said. “I would like to ask them come to us, tell us what we can do to continue to heal the community. 
 
 “We are willing to work with them, the protesters in general,” she said. 
 
 SHOTS RING OUT 
 
 Belmar said that 60 to 70 protesters had come to the Ferguson Police Department in the hours before the shootings. 
 
 Some blocked roads and sidewalks. The protests prompted police departments to send officers, some in riot gear. At least three arrests were made during the protests before the shots were fired. That came later in the night as the protest began to dwindle. 
 
 Several members of the media, including a Post-Dispatch reporter and photographer, were near the officers who were shot. 
 
 Reporters, photographers and police ran behind two brick walls, and officers pulled out their weapons. Then a line of police cars from more than a dozen departments arrived. 
 
 Police closed South Florissant Road in front of the police station and cordoned a section of the area off with crime scene tape. 
 
 Belmar said the shots were fired from across South Florissant, northwest of the police station. Witnesses said the shots appeared to come from the direction of a block of homes on Tiffin Avenue that intersects South Florissant. 
 
 Bradley Rayford, a freelance journalist who has been reporting from Ferguson since the unrest began last summer, said he saw three or four muzzle flashes from the crest of Tiffin Avenue, a residential neighborhood with large century-old homes atop a hill that overlooks the police station. 
 
 He was in front of the police line on South Florissant at the time. He said he couldn’t tell whether the shots were being fired from a vehicle. 
 
 At 2:30 a.m., a contingent of about 25 officers ascended the hill and began scouring the front yard of a home directly behind a tire business, their flashlights sweeping in arcs as they searched for evidence. 
 
 About 25 protesters remained at the scene about two hours after the shooting. Police wouldn’t let them leave until they gave statements. 
 
 The protesters seemed to be two camps. The first were there to make a point that they weren’t satisfied with the recent resignations of Ferguson officials. They were chanting in unison. 
 
 The other group was volatile, angry, hurling profanities at the police, reporters and other protesters. Some skirmishes broke out among the factions. 
 
 At least two people were taken into custody, but those arrests occurred before the gunfire erupted. 
 
 Susan Weich, Christine Byers, Paul Hampel, Kim Bell, Margaret Gillerman, Valerie Schremp Hahn and Joel Currier, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.
– He's out of the hospital and expected to be OK, but one of the two police officers shot last night in Ferguson still has a bullet lodged behind his ear. The 32-year-old got shot below his right eye, and the bullet ended up just below his right ear, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The other officer, 41, got hit in the right shoulder, and the bullet exited out his back. He's out of the hospital, too. Police haven't made any arrests in the shootings, but they took three people in for questioning this morning. "We're lucky by God's grace that we didn't lose those two officers last night," said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar. "We could have buried two police officers next week because of this." Belmar called the attack an "ambush," and Eric Holder used the same word along with some stronger ones, reports CBS News. “This was not someone trying to bring healing to Ferguson," the attorney general said today. "This was a damn punk, a punk, who was trying to sow discord.” Protests are expected to resume tonight, and the Missouri Highway Patrol and St. Louis County Police will take the reins from the Ferguson department, whose chief resigned yesterday. Police think the bullets came from a pistol fired from across the street from the department. In amateur video, two shots are heard, followed by a man screaming in pain, reports AP. The voice of an unidentified person is heard saying, "Acknowledgement nine months ago would have kept that from happening."