Three police officers in three different states were shot in apparently unprovoked attacks in a 12-hour period Sunday, in attacks described as “targeted” and “ambush”-style by officials.
The first and only fatal shooting took place just before noon in San Antonio, directly outside the police station, as a 20-year veteran of the police department issued a traffic ticket from inside his patrol car.
The second shooting was reported in St. Louis when a 46-year-old officer was sitting in traffic in his patrol car when another car pulled up alongside him. Someone inside shot the officer twice in the face then fled.
The third ambush-style shooting shocked the small coastal Florida town of Sanibel, where for the first time in the city’s history an officer was shot in the line of duty. Like the attack in San Antonio, the Florida officer was sitting in his car after a “routine traffic stop” when, according to the News-Press, a “drive-by shooter” opened fire.
At a news conference in San Antonio on Sunday afternoon, Mayor Ivy Taylor said the shooting there was “shocking and sobering,” and asked the community to remain “calm and prayerful.”