UPDATED, 10:53 a.m.

ARNOLD -- A man who police say fired several shots at an Arnold police officer and a police helicopter hovering overhead in an 11-hour manhunt has surrendered to police without a fight.

Arnold Police Chief Robert T. Shockey said the suspect -- a man in his mid-40s with a history of arrests -- was taken into custody about 10 a.m. today after his relatives helped orchestrate a surrender. Police plan to seek several charges of assault on a law enforcement officer, Shockey said.

The man was in a home on a hill overlooking Ferd B. Lang Park, the place where the Arnold officer had been fired upon last night. At a hastily called news conference, Shockey said investigators are in the process of recovering several weapons. Shockey said the suspect used a high-powered rifle.

The man fired about five shots at the officer and about three shots at the helicopter, Shockey said. No one was injured.

Police had the man's home surrounded since about 2 a.m. today. "We kinda knew who it was," he said. Shockey said there are few homes near the park, and that this suspect is well-known to law enforcement officers for past troubles. Shockey himself, as a patrolman 20 years ago, said he had dealings with the suspect.

The incident began about 10:30 p.m. Thursday as the Arnold officer patrolled near Ferd B. Lang Park, a 25-acre park at 1820 Lemay Ferry Road. The Arnold officer was in the park near a recycling area when he heard a voice say something like, "get out of my park." Then several shots -- four or five perhaps -- rang out. One bullet struck the officer's car. The officer was uninjured, but one of the shots barely missed his shoulder, Shockey said.

Later, someone fired three shots at the police helicopter from St. Louis County that had joined the search. No one was injured, but Shockey said there's no doubt the gunman was targeting police officers.

"It's very serious," Shockey said.

The chief added that he didn't know what the gunman's motivation was for shooting at police.

All morning long, police set up roadblocks and stopped cars to look in trunks. The helicopter used equipment to detect heat sources. The police activity had Old Lemay Ferry Road closed in both directions from Highway 141 to Pomme Road. Two public schools whose bus routes run through the search area closed for the day. They were Fox High School and Fox Middle School, with a combined student body of 2,300.

Fox School District's deputy superintendent Arnold Stricker said the two schools on the same campus were closed because school buses use a portion of Old Lemay Ferry Road and some students live on that road, too; and officials didn't want them standing outside waiting for a bus.

"Police didn't even want to put their guys out," Stricker said. "We don't want to put the kids out. It's easier to play it safe."

After input from police, Stricker said school officials made the decision and sent out word through its paging system to parents' emails and home telephones about 5:45 a.m. today. The buses would have started picking up kids at 6:30 a.m.

At about 9:10 a.m. today, two men in a black Jeep Cherokee approached an Arnold officer and a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper at the police roadblock at Church and Old Lemay Ferry roads. They told the officers that the man police are looking for is afraid he'll be shot. Police searched the men, put them in a patrol car and drove away. Shortly after that, police talked with the suspect by telephone and arranged for his surrender.

Quelle: www.stltoday.com