On August 23, Louisiana State Police (LSP) trooper Steven Vincent was shot in the head after stopping an erratic driver in the Lake Charles area of Louisiana. His alleged attacker–Kevin Daigle–then stood over him and taunted him by saying, “You’re lucky. You are going to die soon.”
Trooper Vincent died on August 24.
According to USA Today, LSP Col. Mike Edmonson said Daigle was thereafter subdued by a passerby referred to only as “Robert.” He said Robert disarmed Daigle and, “with the help of others who stopped, handcuffed Daigle with Vincent’s cuffs.” He said Robert then got on the Vincent’s radio and said, “We need help, we need help fast. We got a trooper who is down.”
Edmonson said the dashcam video showed Vincent walk up to Daigle’s car and tell him he wanted to help him–Daigle is well-known by the police in the area as an individual with “numerous DWIs.” Daigle allegedly responded by opening the truck door, raising a sawed-off shotgun and pulling the trigger.
Trooper Vincent leaves behind a wife and a 9-year-old daughter. His tragic death follows numerous other incidents this year in which officers have been shot and wounded or shot and killed after approaching suspects. Breitbart News previously reported that Minneapolis police officer Jordan Davis was allegedly ambushed and shot while responding to a burglary call on February 21. On May 2 NYPD officer Brian Moore was shot with a stolen gun; he died May 4. Hattiesburg Police Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate were shot and killed on May 9 and Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Officer Gregg “Nigel” Benner was shot and killed on Memorial Day.
While there is no set pattern between the type of gun used or the region of the country in which these attacks take place, there are two overarching issues that cannot be ignored: One is the fact that people with violent criminal histories have been released from prisons and jails to walk among us–a number of the suspected gunman in the officer deaths for this year were felons–and, equally distressing, is the fact that a war on cops has been encouraged directly and indirectly from the moment Michael Brown was killed after trying to take away officer Darren Wilson’s gun.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.