It was 39 years ago this week that a San Antonio police officer’s fatal shooting of a fellow patrolman shook the city — and exposed claims of a vigilante killing spree and an alleged assassination plot targeting high-ranking law enforcement.
On Aug. 18, 1986, Farrell Tucker, a 36-year-old patrolman with the San Antonio Police Department, killed Stephen Smith, a 31-year-old fellow SAPD officer who was his former patrol partner. Tucker, who claimed self-defense, shot Smith five times in the head and torso as they sat inside Smith’s parked vehicle.
Tucker told investigators that Smith took away his weapon, a .45-caliber automatic pistol, at gunpoint. As Smith was putting the weapon under his car seat, Tucker pulled out a concealed .357-caliber Magnum service revolver and started firing, according to newspaper archives. At the time, Tucker was wearing a hidden recorder in an attempt to capture Smith talking about any killings he’d taken part in or was planning…