A police
officer was killed in Texas and another wounded in Missouri in apparently
unrelated ambush-style shootings, while a third officer was shot and wounded in
Florida, authorities said on Monday.
The latest
attacks on U.S. law enforcement revived painful memories of deadly ambushes
targeting police in July in Dallas and Baton Rouge.
A fourth
officer in Kansas City, Missouri, was shot in a struggle with an armed suspect,
but he may have been shot by a fellow officer.
A manhunt
was underway for the suspect who killed the officer in San Antonio, Texas,
while the suspect in the Missouri shooting died in a shootout with authorities.
In Sunday's
first incident, 50-year-old Benjamin Marconi, a 20-year veteran of the San
Antonio force was fatally shot as he sat in his squad car during a routine
traffic stop outside the city's police headquarters.
The
assailant stopped his car behind the police cruiser, walked up and shot the
officer in the head through the window as he was writing a ticket, Police Chief
William McManus said.
The gunman
then reached through the window, fired a second shot into the officer, returned
to his vehicle and sped away.
Hours later,
a 46-year-old St. Louis police sergeant was shot in the face by someone in a
car who pulled up beside the officer's cruiser at an intersection, opened fire,
then fled. St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said the wounded officer was
conscious and able to speak after the attack.
The suspect
was later killed in a shootout after officers spotted his car, police said on
Monday.
The
unidentified suspect was wanted for other violent crimes and likely shot the
officer "in fear of being recognized," police said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a
third police officer was shot during a traffic stop on Sanibel Island on
Florida's Gulf Coast, but was not seriously hurt, local media reported.
The officer
was treated for a shoulder wound, according to the reports, while the suspect
was apprehended at his home on an island off Ft. Myers.
'WORST
NIGHTMARE'
A total of
57 U.S. law enforcement officers have been killed by gunfire so far this year,
a 68 percent increase from the same period in 2015.
In the
fourth incident, a police officer in Kansas City was shot and wounded during a
struggle with an armed suspect who tried to flee after a traffic stop, police
said.
The suspect
was killed and a Kansas City police spokeswoman said investigators were
determining whether the officer was shot accidentally by one his colleagues.
Investigators
in Texas said they did not have any immediate clues to the identity of the San
Antonio gunman. They found no apparent link with the man who had been pulled
over, McManus told reporters.
A person of
interest was being questioned in connection with the killing, the U.S. Marshals
Service said on Monday, but police said the suspect was still being sought and
no one had been arrested.
"This
is everyone's worst nightmare," McManus said. Referring to the recent
ambush killings of police officers in Texas and Louisiana, he said,
"Unfortunately, like Dallas, like Baton Rouge, it's happened here
now."
McManus said
the suspect's image was captured by security cameras.
McManus did
not say whether police believe there was a racial element to the shooting. He
said San Antonio officers were being ordered to call for backup during traffic
stops.
The latest
shootings come amid an intense national debate over the role of law enforcement
and especially the use of force by officers against minorities.
In July,
five Dallas police officers were killed when a black U.S. military veteran
opened fire during a protest against police shootings of black men. Days later,
a gunman killed three police officers and wounded four others in Baton Rouge.
Earlier this
month, an Iowa man was charged with killing two police officers who were shot
in their patrol cars in the Des Moines area. He had been ejected by police from
a high school football game after waving a confederate flag at black
spectators.
REUTERS
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