Police across the US on alert after weekend violence

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Police Department is on high alert right following Monday's release of the autopsy report on an unarmed black man shot and killed by police officers last August.

The report shows that 25-year-old Ezell Ford was shot three times, and that a muzzle imprint was found around the bullet wound on his back. Police say Ford was shot as he tried to grab an officer's gun during a struggle.

Investigators withheld the autopsy reports release to avoid tainting potential witness statements, and urged the public not to draw too many conclusions from it.

"An autopsy is an important piece, an autopsy shows manner and cause of death, but an autopsy doesn't prescribe motivation, nor does it indicate propriety, in this case was it an illegal shooting or not," said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.

The LAPD isn't the only department on high alert. Police departments across the country are on high alert after weekend shootings targeted officers in Tampa and Los Angeles. The violence follows the recent shooting deaths of two New York Police Department officers.

In Los Angeles Sunday, two groups faced off outside police headquarters -- those protesting police conduct and those supporting police.

One group chanted, "We love cops, we love cops."

Tensions escalated across the country, after the Dec. 20 shooting deaths of two New York City police officers. The gunman suggested online that their murders were retaliation for the police killings of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson.

In Florida Sunday, shots were fired at two Pasco County deputies in the Tampa Bay area. Neither were hurt.

"All deputies, all police officers, they're human," said an official with the Pasco County Sheriff's Department. "So when things like this happen, of course something like that creeps into the back of your mind."

Sunday night in Los Angeles, two suspects fired a rifle at a police patrol car. No officers were injured.

At a police graduation ceremony Monday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who's viewed by some as sympathetic to protesters demonstrating against police, was booed

But the violence is strengthening the bond between officers around the U.S. Some members of the Los Angeles Police Department traveled to New York to pay their respects to the slain officers.

"We're brothers and sisters in law enforcement, we support each other no matter what part of the country that we're in," said LAPD Director Jerretta Sandoz.

One of the suspects who fired shots at an LAPD patrol car has been taken into custody and a rifle has been recovered. Police are searching for the second suspect.

For full coverage on the recent police protests, click here.