By Kylie Madry
The Dallas Morning News
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, who recently lost one officer to a shooting that also injured another, simply cannot understand all the hate directed toward police.
“I’m angry at the police haters, I’m sick of the police haters,” he said. “We protect them. We defend them. And they give us a big F.U. And I’m sick of it.”
McManus and other officers met Saturday with the public at a monthly “Coffee with Cops” event. The event come one day Officer Miguel Moreno died of injuries suffered in a shootout, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
McManus appeared visibly upset at the gathering, the Express-News reported.
On Thursday, two officers who were responding to a report of a suspicious person were shot by a suspect as they got out of patrol car.
Moreno was struck in the head, and Officer Julio Cavazos was hit in the chin, the chief said.
Moreno died the next day, and Cavazos remains in serious condition.
The shooter, whose identity remains unreleased, fatally shot himself in the head after hitting both officers, according to McManus. The Express-News reports that the shooter had an extensive criminal history.
McManus called body-camera footage of the attack the worst, most unprovoked assault he’s ever seen, WFAA-TV reported.
“The cold and calculated way that this individual shot and killed Officer Moreno and seriously wounded Officer Cavazos was incredible,” he said. “I have never seen such evil, such calculation and such intent in a situation like that. I don’t know how that much evil can get into one person.”
McManus warned officers to “expect the worst” and then to “de-escalate from there.”
“The haters will say that, you know, that we mistreat people or, you know, ‘You were rude to me’ or ‘You were mean to me, you were this to me, you were that to me,’” he said.
“How do you approach somebody on guard, on alert, knowing that something could happen to you without maybe somebody feeling like you’re not being friendly enough? But that’s why.”
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