It was just last night when John Sexton covered the ambush assassination of an officer in San Antonio, Texas. Now there’s been another attempt in St. Louis (only a short drive from Ferguson) in which an officer was shot in the head multiple times while stopped in his patrol vehicle. Through some miraculous act by the grace of God, the officer is expected to survive. The same can’t be said for his assailant.

The initial report came out when there was still a manhunt underway for the shooter and it was horrific enough. (CNN)

Around 7:30 p.m. Sunday night, a gunman pulled up in a silver car next to a marked Chevy Tahoe and opened fire, St. Louis Police Department Police Chief Sam Dotson told reporters.

One officer, a 46-year-old sergeant who was a 20-year veteran, was shot twice in the head but is expected to survive.

“This officer was not involved in a traffic stop,” Dotson said. “This officer was not trying to pull this car over. This officer was driving down the road and was ambushed.”

According to Dotson, the wounder officer’s gun was still in a holster as the suspect pulled alongside the vehicle.

After hours of searching which involved helicopters, dogs and every officer available, the hunt came to an end.

St. Louis Police have killed a gunman they say ambushed an officer in a shooting on Sunday…

Hours later, authorities fatally shot the gunman after he opened fire at officers. No other officers were injured.

The suspect, who fled the scene, led police on a manhunt that lasted into Monday morning. The St. Louis Police Department had called in special operations forces, SWAT units and helicopter units to assist in tracking down the gunman.

It’s bad enough when we see officers coming under fire while investigating crimes and attempting to apprehend suspects. It’s tragic, but it’s also unfortunately part of the job and our law enforcement officials know this when they put on the badge. A cornered criminal or domestic violence situation can spin out of control and turn into a gunfight with tragic results. This was nothing like that. The officer was stopped in his vehicle and wasn’t involved in any sort of arrest or active investigation. Someone pulled up alongside the vehicle and opened fire, going for a head shot.

This was nothing short of a flat out assassination attempt. The words attempted murder don’t even adequately describe it.

I’m hearing a lot of talk from Democrats about an “explosion of hate crimes” after the election. (And we’ll have more on that later today.) Oddly enough, we don’t seem to be hearing much from those same sources about the actual and very alarming rise in attacks on police officers. Attacks on police were up 78% in the first six months of 2016 and that trend has tragically continued through to this week. And as we’ve discussed here more times than I care to recount, an attack on a uniformed law enforcement officer performing their duties is not an assault on one person. It’s an attack on the fabric of civilized society. It’s an attack on all of us.

If our frantically hand wringing media and elected officials want to be worried about a “crime wave” perhaps they could turn their attention to this.