View Full Version : Texas Deputy Killed During Apparent Ambush
Tragic, certainly. I cannot help wondering if the violence in Mexico is spreading to San Antonio.
LINK (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/28/texas-deputy-killed-apparent-ambush/)
A veteran Bexar County sheriff's deputy was fatally shot during an apparent ambush while waiting at a traffic light in his marked patrol vehicle early Saturday, according to the San Antonio Express.
Forty-five-year-old Sgt. Kenneth Vann was waiting at an intersection just after 2 a.m. Saturday when a small white vehicle pulled up next to him on the right side and started shooting through the front passenger window. Witnesses called police, who discovered Vann dead in the driver's seat.
"He did not have a chance to do anything, hit the emergency button on his radio, or even to defend himself. That car pulled up and started blasting, just like that. So where we are right now is that it looks like an ambush," Bexar County Deputy Chief Dale Bennett told the paper.
San Antonio police and U.S. marshals were following up on leads and conducting interviews. Authorities said they know of no motive for the attack.
Chief Deputy Sheriff Manuel Longoria told the Express that Vann was responding to a call for an accidental shooting.
One witness told authorities that she "heard two, separate real quick bursts" of gunfire a few seconds apart, according to the paper. She then saw the deputy's car roll into the intersection after the shooting.
Vann's wife is also a sergeant in the sheriff's office. He also had two sons and a daughter.
He was the first deputy killed in the line of duty in Bexar County since 2003.
RIP Deputy, your watch is over.
The Reaper
05-29-2011, 17:14
Rest in peace, Deputy.
Gang activity or a drug hit?
TR
Utah Bob
05-29-2011, 22:18
Tragic, certainly. I cannot help wondering if the violence in Mexico is spreading to San Antonio.
It will get worse. Only a matter of time.
RIP Deputy Vann, Vaya con Dios..
greenberetTFS
05-30-2011, 05:35
God Bless,Rest in Peace Deputy............:(
Big Teddy
Goggles Pizano
05-30-2011, 06:42
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti amen.
In pace requiescat Deputy Vann. Dominus vobiscum.
Huff9337
05-30-2011, 17:28
It will spread threw the rest of the boarder states if something is not done. And the leadership we have in Washington will do nothing. Rip Deputy.
Combat Diver
05-31-2011, 06:46
Rest in Peace
CD
Rest in Peace Deputy. Thank you for your service.
Update 1 of 2
LINK (http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Information-on-deputy-s-killing-worth-52-000-1401731.php)
The reward offered for information on the killing of Bexar County sheriff's Sgt. Kenneth Vann reached $52,000 Monday, bolstered by donations from the Texas Municipal Police Association, multiple police agencies across Texas and Vann's relatives, and it might grow higher as word of the slaying spreads, officials said.
Vann, 48, was killed with an automatic weapon, said Deputy Chief Dale Bennett, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office. Vann, a 24-year veteran, was in his marked patrol car en route to a call when he was ambushed. While stopped at a red light at Rigsby Avenue and Loop 410 around 2 a.m. Saturday, someone in a small white car pulled up and shot him, authorities have said.
Authorities have not determined a motive or released information on suspects, other than to say that Vann was likely killed because he was a law enforcement officer. A multiagency task force based in the AT&T Center parking lot and led by sheriff's Deputy Chief Rey Lujan is investigating. Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz said Sunday that the officers would not rest until “we find the guy who did it.”
Deputies seized a white Cadillac found at a home near the shooting Saturday, but Bennett said it is unclear whether that vehicle was involved.
Authorities are asking anyone with information on the shooting — no matter how seemingly insignificant — to call Crime Stoppers at 210-224-7867 or the Sheriff's Office at 210-335-6070.
Federal marshals are working on 24-hour shifts, Deputy U.S. Marshal Bobby Hogeland said, and are thoroughly investigating tips.
“We are absolutely running every lead into the ground,” Hogeland said. “It's intense. We want to do everything we can to find the person, or persons, involved.”
Visitation for Vann is scheduled for Thursday, and his funeral will be Friday at St. Joseph Catholic Church-Honey Creek in Spring Branch.
Vann, who was married to sheriff's Sgt. Yvonne Vann, graduated from Lee High School and San Antonio College, according to his obituary on Porter Loring Mortuaries' website. He also served in the Marine Corps during Operation Desert Storm.
Update 2 of 2
LINK (http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Bexar-deputyis-shot-to-deathat-traffic-light-1399908.php#page-1)
Despite having faced dangerous situations during his nearly 25 years as a sheriff's deputy, Sgt. Kenneth Gary Vann never needed his gun to defend himself.
Early Saturday, when he needed that weapon most, Vann didn't have the chance to ward off an unknown motorist who drove up beside his marked cruiser and fired repeatedly without warning, killing him.
Authorities said Vann, 48, was stopped at a red light on the East Side when someone ambushed him — an attack so sudden he was unable to reach for his weapon or call for help.
“He did not have a chance to do anything, hit the emergency button on his radio, or even to defend himself,” Bexar County Deputy Chief Dale Bennett said. “That car pulled up and started blasting, just like that. So where we are right now is that it looks like an ambush.”
Bennett described the murder weapon as “very probably high-caliber, and likely a semiautomatic.”
“None of us can see any reason behind this,” sheriff's Sgt. E.M. Conger said. “It has been hard on all of us. As for his friends and family, the biggest question we are all trying to figure out is why this happened to him.”
His wife, Yvonne, said she knows the risks that come with wearing a law-enforcement uniform, since she wears one herself. Still, she said she didn't see this tragedy coming.
She said that despite his long career, Vann never had used his weapon to defend himself, so she figured the worst news she might get was that he was injured in a crash.
“I never thought I'd get the call that he was dead,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
Vann was the first Bexar County deputy killed in the line of duty since 2003, and the 17th since 1840. Less than two weeks ago, Bexar County law officers gathered to honor the previous 16 killed on duty.
The last deputy to die on duty was Jesus Garza, 33, killed when he lost control of his patrol car near Calaveras Lake and slammed into a stand of trees on Dec. 26, 2003.
Late Saturday, authorities still were trying to piece together the events that led to Vann's fatal shooting near Rigsby Avenue and Loop 410.
A mobile command post — with members of the Sheriff's Office, the San Antonio Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI — was set up in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart.
“This is where we are trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together,” Bennett said as a new crop of officers prepared to gather evidence and interview witnesses.
Bennett said authorities were trying to find a small, white car seen in the area after the shooting, about 2:12 a.m. Investigators were securing surveillance camera images from two nearby convenience stores to see if the incident was captured.
Chief Deputy Sheriff Manuel Longoria said Vann was responding to a call for an accidental shooting in eastern Bexar County. He had stopped for a red light in the left westbound lane on Rigsby, just east of the Loop 410 overpass, “when someone rolls up on his right and just opens up, firing multiple shots.”
The bullets shattered the front and rear passenger windows. Authorities said they were not sure how many bullets were fired; Longoria said numerous spent cartridges were recovered around the shot-out cruiser.
He said Vann died before emergency responders could get him to a hospital.
“This is just a senseless thing,” Longoria said. “It really feels bad when one from your own agency is killed.”
At the scene, debris and shattered glass marked where the shooting started, Longoria said.
Once the shooting stopped, the sergeant's patrol car, still in gear, rolled into the intersection and came to rest against yellow crash barrels underneath the overpass' support pillars, Longoria said.
One person who was pulling into a nearby convenience store told investigators she heard two distinct, rapid bursts of gunfire.
Fellow deputies described Vann as well-liked and a hard worker.
They said he was a devout family man who was committed to his wife — also a sergeant with the Sheriff's Office — and his three children from a previous marriage: a 25-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 19 and 15. They said he enjoyed traveling and spending time with them.
“He worked nights, and on a Friday night during football seasons, it was understood he'd be coming in late because he was watching his boy play football,” said Sgt. Blake Johnson, who said Vann was a close friend he'd known at least 16 years. “His dedication to his family was very strong.”
The couple met in 1994, Yvonne was in training and Vann was a patrol officer. Yvonne thought he was handsome. She remembered chuckling when he tried kicking down a burglary suspect's reinforced door, to no avail.
Yvonne, the rookie, ended up going around the back, entering the residence through a sliding-glass door.
As everyone searched the premises, she noticed a bunch of wet clothes lying around. On a hunch, she opened the dryer — and found one of their burglary suspects. They called him the Maytag kid.
The couple didn't date for a long time — Kenneth was married, and even after his divorce, he and Yvonne still were just colleagues.
But a fellow deputy prodded them to give it a shot, and eventually they did.
They watched “The Bourne Identity” on their first date and shared their first kiss that night. They married June 14, 2008.
Vann owned land in Comal County and built a home where he and Yvonne forged a new life together.
They loved to travel and bought a motor home, which they drove all over the country. Kenneth drove at night, Yvonne drove during the day.
The veteran deputies liked anything having to do with Disney.
The last time they saw each other was Friday evening. Kenneth was getting ready to leave for work and noticed Yvonne had removed bulky bandages from a nose surgery.
“Oh, look, I get to kiss you today,” he said.
They kissed goodbye three times. Yvonne remembers each one. Then her husband walked out the door to go to work.
Bordercop
05-31-2011, 10:17
Rest in Peace Deputy.
Red Flag 1
05-31-2011, 17:03
Rest In God's Peace Deputy.
Master Pain BMF
06-25-2011, 18:04
It will get worse. Only a matter of time.
Being born and raised in San Antonio, Ive most def seen the crime rate increase over a couple years. The increase in drugs (or marijuana for some of you) obviously brings in even more issues to the city.
Ive kept up with the news as far as whats going on with the cartels and mexicos government.. and Im hoping someone is or will be be proactive and try to prevent something like this from happening again.
Actions like these usually have a bigger chain at the end, and if your from Texas or Southern California, you know exactly what I mean.
R.I.P. Deputy
"Hopefully heaven will be as big as Texas"
The strange thing for me is that they, or at least not thru the news, and may have I missed it? Nobody said what happened at the accident he was going to when it happened. Everyone here should know why? This is why you can never relax while "On The Job". Relaxation comes at home inside watching a football game or baseball game depending on where you live. That is condition "White". The officer should of been in at least "Yellow". When I decided to work night shift I knew about this ambush technique. So, I was in either in Yellow or what I would call "Orange"most of the time. I also, did not holster my weapon fully during the entire shift. Any TS's, I had my gun out and along my side. When I pulled up to a place of say Domestic Violence I would sit dark for a few seconds to get a feeling of the call and listen for the conversation. I always had a plan.
Unfortunately, at the loss of a Brother Officer do we learn and to be more aware of your surroundings. My prayers go out to his family.
Mark
I know guys, I am Monday morning Quarterbacking. :(