Police Hunting Suspect After Texas Officer Gunned Down While Writing Traffic Ticket

San Antonio police are hunting the suspected gunman after an officer was executed in his patrol car as he was writing a traffic ticket on Sunday morning.

Det. Benjamin Marconi was shot and killed while writing a ticket in his patrol car on Sunday. (SAPD)

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 vehicle pulled up behind him, the killer emerged 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.

"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.

Marconi was pronounced dead at San Antonio Military Medical Center at 12:30 p.m., FOX29 reported.

"It's always difficult, especially in this day and age where police are being targeted across the country," McManus said. "Hopefully we'll solve this one real quick."

Sunday's 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.



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