Four police officers in three states shot 'ambush' style just hours apart

A St. Louis police sergeant was shot twice in the face "ambush" style on Sunday, just hours after at least three other officers were shot — one outside Kansas City, Missouri; one in San Antonio; and another in Sanibel, Florida.

The 46-year-old St. Louis sergeant, a 20-year veteran of the force, was sitting in his patrol car at a traffic light Sunday night when the suspect, described as a 19-year-old black man, pulled up beside the cruiser and fired two shots.

“He was just protecting the streets and was shot without provocation. He didn’t deserve this. He was just doing his job, but he was targeted because he was a police officer," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said, according to KMOV-TV.

The officer, who was not immediately identified, was taken to a nearby hospital in critical but stable condition.

A SWAT team was activated to help search for the at-large suspect, who reportedly got into a car with a female driver. Once police were able to track him down, the suspect got out of the vehicle and darted down an alley. That's when he approached an unmarked police car and fired another shot. But officers in and around that vehicle fired back, killing the suspect, who police said they knew by name and may have been involved in a number of previous robberies, one carjacking and one homicide.

The police-involved shooting came just hours after three similar incidents.

In Gladstone, Missouri, which is just outside Kansas City, another officer was shot after the suspect led him on a foot chase during a traffic stop. The suspect was fatally shot but the officer was expected to survive.

In San Antonio, Texas, Detective Benjamin Marconi, the father of two children, was fatally shot while writing a traffic ticket inside his cruiser. The suspect in that case was still on the run as of Monday morning.

In Sanibel, Florida, just south of Ft. Myers, 49-year-old Jon Webster Hay was arrested for homicide after police say he shot an officer who was inside his patrol car. The officer was treated at a nearby hospital but later released, the Sanibel News-Press reported.

The Sanibel officer is the first in the city's history to have been shot while on duty.