Two men shot by ATF agent in St. Louis

 Two men were shot this morning as police and agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, tried to arrest them.

The shooting happened about 11:20 a.m. at South Grand Boulevard and Iron Street.

David Marzullo, a spokesman for the St. Louis Police Department, said one man was killed and another wounded. An ATF agent, however, said both were alive, though one was critically wounded and wasn't stable.

Marino Vidoli, the special agent in charge for the Kansas City field office of the ATF, said the shooting came after an investigation over three weeks involving ATF agents and police. Authorities attempted to arrest some of those they were investigating today after receiving information that they planned to commit an armed robbery.

As they attempted to make their arrests, the suspects drove at ATF agents and tried to hit them, Vidoli said. One agent fired his weapon "to protect his life and the lives of others around him," Vidoli said.

In addition to the two people shot, three other people were arrested, Vidoli said. Authorities found three guns at the shooting scene.

Vidoli did not give more detail about the investigation and did not answer questions during a brief appearance to media this afternoon.

"ATF agents and St. Louis police officers did their job today," Vidoli said. "These are very dangerous individuals who intended to do serious harm."

Dwayne Dorsey, 38, said he witnessed the shooting as he was dropping off his wife, an in-home health care provider, at an apartment building nearby. He said he pulled into the apartment building's parking lot with his wife and their 7-month-old daughter in the car and heard a crash.

When he looked up, he saw several people running from a car. Three law enforcement officers chased the people, and shots were fired, Dorsey said. He wasn't sure who was firing.

"It scared me to death when I heard the shots because I had my baby and my wife in the car," he said. "It was crazy."

Two of the fleeing men were shot on a parking lot near railroad tracks that run through the area, Dorsey said.

Matt Bodnar was applying a termite treatment to a nearby home when he also heard the crash and shots.

"It scared the crap out of me," said =Bodnar, 33, of Dittmer.

Michael Grime, 53, a former corrections officer who lives nearby, said he heard five distinct shots.

The area is just north of Carondelet Park, near a closed Foodland grocery.

In March 2011, about two miles to the north, a U.S. marshal was fatally shot near Marquette Park when a fugitive-search team went into a two-family flat at 3117 Osage Street. The marshal who died was John Perry. Perry was shot by Carlos Boles, who was killed in a shootout with police.