Four US police officers shot in attacks

A police sergeant in the city of St. Louis in the US state of Missouri was in critical condition but is expected to survive after being shot in the face on Sunday night.

The St. Louis police said on Twitter that the suspect fired into the police officer's vehicle from another car that pulled up alongside.

The city's Police Chief Sam Dotson said the suspect who shot the 46-year-old initially escaped, but that he was later shot dead by police after he exchanged fire with other officers.

The injured officer was reportedly not conducting a traffic stop or involved in a call when he was shot twice in the face.

"He didn't deserve this," said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. "It looks like he's going to survive. He's going to be OK. But this is traumatic. It's traumatic for him, his family. It's traumatic for the city of St. Louis. He was just doing his job."

Fatal shooting in Texas

The attack came hours after a separate attack in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday where a detective was fatally shot while sitting in his squad car.

Detective Benjamin Marconi, a 20-year veteran of the San Antonio department, was writing a ticket for a traffic violation when he was shot by someone who pulled up behind his car.

San Antonio police released pictures of the suspected car used in the shooting as well as an image of a person who is believed to have information on the shooting.

"This is everyone's worst nightmare," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.

Spate of shootings

Another police officer in Gladstone in western Missouri was also shot and injured on Sunday, but was expected to live, the Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police said on Twitter.

Officials said a police officer on the island of Sanibel off the Florida coast was also the victim of a shooting attack while he was carrying out a "routine" traffic stop, suffering non-life-threatening injuries.

Tensions in the US have been running high in the US after a spate of fatal police shootings of black men and subsequent targeted attacks against police officers.

In July, a lone gunman in Dallas, Texas, killed five police officers who were monitoring a protest about the deaths of black men in the states of Minnesota and Louisiana.

Earlier in November, two police officers in Des Moines, Iowa, were also fatally shot in ambush-style attacks while sitting in their patrol cars.

rs/tj   (AP, Reuters)