bradley rayford, a freelance journalist on the ground there, you were saying a little bit earlier that soon after this happened, officers cordoned off the area and were trying to get cell phone video because that may hold some clues as to exactly who fired off these shots. >> reporter: i'm sorry. one more time. >> yeah i was asking about the officers trying to get cell phone video from demonstrators to help in the investigation. is that correct? >> reporter: yeah the police were preparing to -- they were taking cover. they had their guns out. they got their rifles out of their car, their assault rifles out of their cars. they got their shot guns. others kind of took cover behind their cars. some took cover -- the police station and fire department are right next to each other. so it's a monument -- i wouldn't call it a monument but it was a brick wall that we all took cover behind, the cops and myself and the other journalists that were right there. >> so when these shots were fired, you say you heard maybe about four of them correct? >> about four at least four shots. >> and they were

bradley rayford, stay with us, we're going to get some information and get more from you. stay here for the latest. >>> welcome back everybody. we're here with breaking news out of ferguson missouri. there's not only reports but confirmation that shots have been fired outside the ferguson police department and two officers have indeed been hit, the extent of those injuries are not known at this hour. we are continuing to follow this story very closely. i want to bring in former agent and hoft age investigator. a journalist is saying the shots came from the hill about 700 feet away from the police department. what does that tell you about the person who fired the shots. >> like the reporter said he wasn't appearing to be part of the group who was protesting in front of the police department. that was about to be through. someone was up 500 to 700 feet away, it's a pretty good distance away to fire and hit two officers, one in the face. we don't know their condition. we don't know how seriously they have been hurt. sounds awfully bad when you're hit in the face. we don't kno

scene. >> bradley rayford, right.e gave a good description. he was present. the bullets moving past his head. he saw the flashes, the muzzle flashes from the hill. the chief said the officers were shot directly so apparently they were shot you know from directly. he said it was not a ricochet shot. so you know they have some leads to go on. we don't know if it's one shooter, two shooters. bradley said there was four shots, he thought. so they don't have a lot to go on. they need some help from the public to find out who the shooters are and to stop them put an end to that. >> we're understanding that they're trying to get some cell phone video from protesters who were there on the scene and, again, we want to be very clear, at this point there is no indication that those protesters were involved in the shooting in any form or fashion. in fact that it came from an area outside of that immediate protest on that hill across the street. we don't have an exact distance jim. bradley was mentioning somewhere between 500 and

bradley rayford. he was covering last night's protest. he was a witness to the shooting. mr.k you for your time tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> we see you out there on the streets tonight in ferguson. before i ask you specifically about what you saw last night, can you just tell us what the mood is like tonight and what it's been like today in ferguson? >> right now it's pretty much just media in front of the police department. there are about 40 people that walked past us towards where the candlelight vigil was scheduled to be held just down toward the ferguson brew house if you're familiar with the ferguson area. it's an area where there's a large area for people to gather for the vigil tonight. >> okay. last night when you were at the police station and you saw the shooting happen, can you just tell us what happened? it's my understanding when i looked at the footage it seemed like it was sort of a protest/rally. it seemed to be sort of winding down when the shots rang out. what happened? >> you could almost say that the protest did wind down when the shots rang ou

. >> bradley rayford, thanks for helping us understand what it was like. >> thank you for having me on. >> thanks. >>> we've got a couple of great things still to come tonight on the show. number one, a triumph in local news coverage. a triumph. and two, the interview tonight which tonight is a very rare species for this show. and it comes from texas. and i'm really looking forward to this. please stay with us. ♪ bring your vision for the future to life. for more than 145 years, pacific life has been helping families achieve life-long financial security with innovative tools and strategies. talk to a financial advisor to protect your family and plan today. pacific life. the power to help you succeed. pacific life proudly presents "humpback whales", a whale-sized movie for giant screen theaters. i want my foyer to smell more like a foyer. i want his bedroom to smell like he's away at boarding school. surround yourself with up to 6 hours of luxurious, long-lasting scents... ...introducing new unstopables air refresher. if you suffer from a dry mouth then you'll know how uncomfortable it

let's bring in right now freelance photographer bradley rayford who was actually on the scene very nearbyre the officers were shot. what can you tell us bradley, about what happened last night? >> yeah, as jennifer was stating before, it was definitely traumatic event. the protesters were actually boeing down and so the shooting was completely random and unexpected. actually, it happened definitely something none of us was expecting to happen. >> how did the police respond, bradley? >> the police, as you can imagine, of course they're on edge. you can kind of know when a cop changes from the good cop to a serious cop about what's going on. but you definitely can kind of sense they were on edge and trying to figure out and keep themselves safe or the citizens safe as well as the cops police officers. >> bradley, did you know -- i know there was some confusion initially where the shots were being fired from some press accounts suggest it was on a hill across the street from your vantage point. can you tell where the shots were coming? >> i saw the muzzle fire from the top of the hill. >> ok