4 Police Officers Shot In 24 Hours – 1 Fatally, 1 Shot In The Face, 2 Attacks Were Targeted Ambushes On Cops

It was a bloody Sunday for law enforcement around this great nation when four police officers were shot. At least two of the attacks were ones where cops were “targeted” in an “ambush” onslaught and one police officer was killed.

Detective Benjamin Marconi, a 20-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department, was writing out a traffic ticket to a motorist when he was gunned down late Sunday morning. A driver pulled up from behind and then shot and murdered Marconi near police headquarters. The killer walked up to Marconi’s patrol car and shot Marconi in the head from outside the vehicle, then the murderer put his gun through the window and shot the officer again.

The suspect is still at large, but there is a massive manhunt. Police posted a picture of a possible person of interest as well as the vehicle seen at the scene of the crime.

SAPD Chief William McManus said he doesn’t believe the suspect has any relationship to the original motorist who was pulled over, and no motive has been identified.

“Ben was a great guy. People loved him, and certainly, he had an aura about him,” said Mike Helle, president of the San Antonio Police Officers Association, who personally knew Marconi. “You had to go out of your way to not like him. So he’s that good of a guy.”

In St. Louis, a police sergeant was shot in the face twice on Sunday in an attack that the police chief has called an “ambush.” Around 7:30 p.m., a gunman pulled up in a silver car next to a marked Chevy Tahoe and opened fire. One officer, a 46-year-old sergeant and 20-year veteran of the force, was shot twice in the head but is expected to survive.

The officer was sitting in traffic when the suspect pulled up alongside him. He “saw the muzzle flashes and felt the glass breaking in his window as the shots came through and struck him in the head,” said Police Chief Sam Dotson.

“This officer was not trying to pull this car over,” Dotson said. “This officer was driving down the road and was ambushed.”

The suspect fled the scene and a manhunt that invloved special operations forces, SWAT units and a police helicopter ensued. Police discovered his location early Monday morning and he ditched his car and ran away. The man fired shots at officers and they returned fire, killing him. No officers were injured during the shootout.

“Fortunately for the blessing of God the officer’s going to survive,” Dotson said. The officer’s name has not been released, but he is a married father of three who has been with the department for about 20 years.

A police officer with the Gladstone, Missouri, police department near Kansas City was shot, along with a suspect. A police officer was struggling with a man in his late teens who had fled from a traffic stop. During the tussle, authorities said the man revealed a handgun, shots were fired and the teen was killed. The officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

A law enforcement officer from Sanibel, Florida, was also shot on Sunday night. During a routine traffic stop, the officer was shot in the shoulder and is expected to make a full recovery.

Sunday’s attacks on police came less than five months after a gunman killed five officers in Dallas. Ten days after the Dallas attack, a man wearing a ski mask and armed with two rifles and a pistol killed three officers near a gas station and convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And earlier this month, two Des Moines, Iowa-area police officers were fatally shot in separate ambush-style attacks while sitting in their patrol cars.

A total of 57 U.S. law enforcement officers have been killed by gunfire so far this year, a 68% increase from the same period in 2015.

[CBSNews/CNN/FoxNews]