Sergeant Kenneth Vann, a Deputy with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, made his last watch on May 28th. At around 2:00 A.M. Sgt. Vann was responding to a reported accidental shooting in the outlying area around San Antonio. As he stopped his patrol car at a traffic signal, a car stopped beside him in the right lane. Several people in the car opened fire. The Deputy was hit by nearly a dozen rounds, and died immediately. His vehicle rolled through the intersection and crashed into a bridge pylon barrier as the suspects drove away.
This assassination only emphasizes once again that merely driving a police car places an officer in the line of fire. There was no contact between Sgt. Vann and the occupants of the vehicle prior to the shooting. There is a darker side to this murder of a police officer. Many of you may recall that in the opening days of 2011 several police officers across the United States were shot in random incidents, at least that was the first thought. Later, as the killings were investigated, it appeared that there was possibly a loosely organized conspiracy to shoot police officers anywhere and at anytime. Arrests were made in several of the murders, but no hard evidence of a conspiracy was found. Nonetheless, there appeared to be conspiracy where the conspirators did not know each other, and most probably acted alone in each incident.
The murder of police officers appeared to taper to more "normal" levels, as tragic as it is to say it that way. Possibly the severe weather in the latter portions of this winter slowed the shootings. Perhaps the "loose" conspiracy ran its course. But the murder of Sgt. Vann raises the specter of continued "ambush" murders of police officers. I hope I am wrong.
Sgt. Vann left behind his wife and three children, as well as his comrades at the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. The murder of this police officer is a particularly sour pill to swallow because the leads as to the suspects' identities are very slim. Even with a reward fund of over $100,000 few solid tips have been received. I thank Sgt. Vann for his service to his community, and I send my condolences to join with the sympathy being offered from all over this state and this nation. And I send an extra prayer for the safety of all police officers. Any police situation can turn deadly, but the deadliest situation of all is the ambush, a situation in which the officer has no warning and very little time to react. Today the Blue Line is a little thinner, as Deputy Sgt. Vann finished his last watch.
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