Suspect held after separate attacks on Texas, Mo., cops
A manhunt for a suspect in the fatal shooting of a veteran Texas police detective ended Monday evening with an arrest in the slaying, which was one of several weekend attacks that authorities say targeted 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, Fla., and Gladstone, Miss., 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 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 shot officer.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus identified the San Antonio detective killed Sunday as Benjamin Marconi, 50, a 20-year veteran of the force. At a news conference Monday evening, McManus said a 31-year-old man, Otis Tyrone McKane, was arrested without incident after the car he was driving was stopped Monday afternoon on an interstate.
McManus said earlier that he doesn’t believe the suspect has any relationship to the motorist who was pulled over initially.
At a news conference Monday morning, McManus said Marconi was killed because he was a police officer.
Surveillance video shows the suspect at San Antonio police headquarters about four hours before Marconi was shot. The suspect asked a desk clerk a question but left before receiving an answer, said McManus, who declined to say what the man asked.
“I don’t know why he was in headquarters,” he said.
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson declined to name the 46-year-old officer on his force who was shot Sunday evening, but said he is a married father of three who has been with the department for about 20 years.
“This officer was driving down the road and was ambushed by an individual who pointed a gun at him from inside of his car and shot out the police officer’s window,” Dotson said during a news conference. That officer was released from the hospital Monday.
The suspect, identified as 19-year-old George P. Bush III, was wanted for questioning in recent violent crimes that included several robberies, a carjacking and perhaps a killing, Dotson said. He didn’t elaborate.
Police said Bush’s weapon was recovered from the scene.
Police said Bush was later killed in a shootout with officers.