Police hunting suspect after Texas officer gunned down while writing traffic ticket

The officer, 50-year-old Det. Benjamin Marconi, was shot after he pulled a driver over for an unspecified traffic infraction near police headquarters at around 11:45 a.m. local time, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said during a news conference. While Marconi sat in his patrol car writing a ticket, a second vehicle pulled up behind him. The killer emerged from the second car and fired at Marconi through the passenger-side window of the squad car.

The gunman then reached inside the car and fired a second shot at Marconi before walking back to his car and fleeing the scene through the police department parking lot. Both shots fired at Marconi, a 20-year veteran, hit him in the head, McManus said.

Marconi was pronounced dead at San Antonio Military Medical Center at 12:30 p.m.

“This is everyone’s worst nightmare. You never want to see anything like this happen,” said McManus, who then ticked off several other cities that recently had police officers targeted and killed. “Unfortunately, like Dallas, like Baton Rouge, it’s happened here now.”

Police released a still image of the suspected gunman’s vehicle speeding away from police headquarters. Authorities were still looking through video footage to help identify the gunman. McManus said police did not believe the driver who was stopped by Marconi had any relationship with the gunman.

enforcement officers and the public,” said McManus, who added that after the shooting officers had been instructed to not make traffic stops alone.

The chief said investigators are looking into all leads and motives, including whether it could be related to an officer-involved shooting earlier Sunday in the city. In that incident, McManus said, police fatally shot a man who pointed a gun at officers outside an apartment following a seven-hour standoff.

“Hopefully, we’ll solve this one real quick,” McManus said.

Some streets downtown were blocked off with police tape as officials investigated the slaying.

The shooting came less than five months after a gunman killed five officers in Dallas who were working a protest about the fatal police shootings of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana. It was the deadliest day for American law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001.

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.

“It’s always difficult, especially in this this day and age, where police are being targeted across the country,” McManus said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the slaying a “horrific act of violence.” Abbott said in a statement that “attacks against law enforcement officers will not be tolerated in Texas and must be met with swift justice.”

San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor extended condolences to the family of the slain officer and the entire police force.