By Jim Forsyth
SAN
ANTONIO (Reuters) - 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
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.
'WORST NIGHTMARE'
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 and later released from the
hospital, according to the reports, while the suspect was apprehended at
his home on an island off Ft. Myers.
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.
"This
is everyone's worst nightmare," McManus said. Referring to the recent
ambush killings of police officers in Texas and Louisiana, he said, "You
never want to see anything like this happen. 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.
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.
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