SAN ANTONIO — A new Bexar County Sheriff’s Office substation won’t just serve as a community hub to respond to nearby incidents—it’s also a way to memorialize a fallen sergeant.
Located off NE Loop 1604 southeast of San Antonio, the facility is BCSO’s first permanent substation, with the goal of reducing response times and building greater community relations with nearby residents.
But the $8 million facility is also adorned with a plaque honoring Bexar County Sergeant Kenneth Vann, who was gunned down in 2011 while protecting metro streets.
“What a tremendous honor to carry on his legacy and his memory. The love that we both shared with the sheriff’s office and the citizens of Bexar County,” Yvonne Vann, Kenneth’s wife, said at Saturday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Yvonne also served the community as a former sergeant, and shared her husband’s passion for community service and justice.
“Both of us went into this profession knowing that we could always make the ultimate sacrifice and it could happen at any moment,” she said.
Now his legacy sits at the entrance of the new substation in the area he once patrolled, where other deputies will soon dedicate their time tackling crime in the community from nearby.
"I know he is overwhelmed up there in heaven,” Yvonne Vann said, “just looking down on us and saying, ‘Yep, they did it. Knew it would happen one day.’”