A manhunt was underway Monday in Texas for a suspect wanted in the fatal shooting of a veteran police detective in what authorities say was one of several attacks targeting law enforcement in multiple states.
The San Antonio detective as well as officers in Missouri and Florida were conducting routine tasks Sunday when they became the targets of violence.
The detective was writing a traffic ticket when he was shot to death in his squad car late Sunday morning outside police headquarters. In Missouri, a St. Louis police sergeant was shot twice in the face Sunday evening while he sat in traffic in a marked police vehicle. The sergeant is expected to survive.
Police officers were also shot and injured during traffic stops in Sanibel, Florida, and Gladstone, Missouri, on Sunday night, but authorities have not suggested these were targeted attacks.
The shootings come less than five months after a black military veteran killed five white officers at a protest in Dallas — the deadliest day for American law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001.
Race was a factor in the Dallas attack, but police have not said if race played a part in any of the attacks on Sunday. In San Antonio, police say the suspect is black and the officer was white. In St. Louis, the suspect was black. Police have not released the race of the officer shot.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus identified the officer killed Sunday as Benjamin Marconi, 50, a 20-year veteran of the force.
Police said the search for a male suspect was still underway Monday and that no arrest has been made. McManus said he doesn't believe the suspect has any relationship to the original motorist who was pulled over, and that no motive has been identified.
At a news conference Monday morning, McManus said Marconi was killed because he was a police officer.
"I think the uniform was the target and the first person that happened along was the first person that (the suspect) targeted," he told reporters.