Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday that the shooting of two police officers during a protest in front of the police station as "heinous and cowardly attacks." The after-midnight shooting came after Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson announced his resignation over the furor caused by the 2014 shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown.

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Holder said the incident does not bring healing to Ferguson.

Jackson's resignation was part of a revamp of the top city echelon, following a damning Justice Department report that said Ferguson used its legal system to raise income, while in the process, breaching the constitutional rights and targeting disproportionately its black residents, reports the New York Times.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the shooting of the two cops was an ambush. Despite the anti-police sentiment caused by Brown's death, the shooting of the two officers was denounced by both side of the conflict between the city's black community and law enforcers.

St. Louis and the Missouri State Highway Patrol had assumed responsibility for security in Ferguson on the same day.

A manhunt is ongoing for the gunman in the Thursday morning incident.

On Thursday night, church officials and activists held a candlelight prayer vigil to condemn the shooting of the two police officers and support nonviolent forms of protest.

Rev. Traci Blackmon of the Christ the King Church of Christ in Florissant said, "As frequent victims of violence, we certainly understand the pain of these senseless acts."

Holder lamented that the shooting of the two cops occurred at a time when Ferguson is moved toward restoring faith in its criminal justice system in small "good-faith steps."

Besides the resignation of Jackson, the Thursday demonstrators also sought the resignation of Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III. The two wounded cops were treated at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. One is 32 and from the Webster Groves Police Department for seven years, and the other is 41, and 14 years with the St. Louis County Police.

TagsFerguson, anti-police sentiment, michael brown