Authorities on Saturday identified an Alabama police officer who was killed during a drug enforcement operation and said the man’s father was also an officer with the Huntsville Police Department who died in the line of duty.

Billy Clardy was shot in the heart Friday during a task force operation after investigators learned about the delivery of a large amount of drugs, Huntsville police said.

Police Chief Mark McMurray said at a news conference on Saturday that Clardy joined the Huntsville police force in 2005 after serving in the military and as a law enforcement officer in other agencies.

He had served as a community resource officer in Huntsville — a role in which he worked closely with the city’s homeless population.

“Billy Clardy was more than a Huntsville hero,” McMurray said. “He was an American hero.”

Clardy is survived by a wife and five children, according to the police chief.

McMurray said Clardy’s father was also a Huntsville police officer and died in 1978. The father, Billy Clardy Jr., died in a crash while on duty, AL.com report ed.

McMurray was flanked by wreaths and surrounded by other officers.

Authorities did not immediately release any additional details about Friday’s shooting. They have said Clardy was wearing a bulletproof vest when he was shot.

Six Alabama law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty in 2019, according to numbers released by the Alabama attorney general’s office following last month’s fatal shooting of Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams.