© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Man Shoots Own Truck; Flees Scene

Update: 4:20 p.m., Oct. 13, 2016​

San Antonio Police received multiple calls Thursday morning of a person shooting a gun near The Shops at La Cantera. Nobody was hurt in what turned out to be a bizarre active shooter scene.

A man at La Cantera and Fiesta Texas Drive fired a gun at his own truck for an unknown reason and then drove away.             

“It was described as a white or Hispanic male in his 30s,” says Officer Douglas Greene, SAPD spokesman.  “It appeared that the individual, based on some of the accounts coming in, that the individual was wearing a tactical vest.”

Greene says no one was injured in the incident, but the gunman could be charged for firing a weapon in a populated area.

“First of all you’ve got firing a handgun in a municipality of more than 100,000 people, so that’s the one charge that comes off the top of my head,” he says.  

SAPD and University of Texas at San Antonio police searched for the man by car and helicopter.  Businesses and three schools in the area were placed in lockdown for a couple hours before the all clear was given just before noon.

Update: 2:30 p.m., Oct. 13, 2016

This morning a man at La Cantera and Fiesta Texas Drive fired a gun at his own truck for an unknown reason and then drove away. He is described as white or Hispanic and in his early 30s.

San Antonio Police Department spokesman Officer Douglas Greene says they did get some false reports and based on some accounts the man was wearing a "tactical vest."

"Unfortunately, that’s what happens in these types of situations. We do start to get some false calls that come in. We did have a call that said an individual was inside the mall here in La Cantera, which is absolutely false," Greene says. "But again, we take every call seriously;  we cleared the location; we verified that the call was false and so there was nobody found in the mall."

Police searched for the man by car and helicopter.  The area is no longer on lockdown, including three schools. No shooting victims were located.
 

Update: 11:30 a.m., Oct. 13, 2016

San Antonio Police continue to search for a suspect who reportedly was firing shots near I-10 and La Cantera earlier this morning. Police are searching in patrol cars and with a helicopter for a man they describe as white or Hispanic and in his early 30s.

SAPD spokesman Douglas Greene confirmed shots were fired and shell casings found in two separate areas but police are not releasing details on the exact locations of where the shells were found. Police are also uncertain what type of weapon was fired.

Shortly after 11 a.m., the area was cleared and the modified lockdown at three nearby elementary schools has been lifted, according to San Antonio Police and a Northside ISD spokesman. Monroe May, Leon Springs and Bonnie Ellison elementary schools have returned to their normal school schedules.

11 a.m., Oct. 13, 2016

San Antonio Police have confirmed they're searching for a suspect who reportedly shot at cars near the I-10 and La Cantera area. The police presence is heavy with a helicopter searching overhead and police are encouraging residents to avoid the area.

SAPD has set up a command center near the entrance to Fiesta Texas. Three NorthsideISD schools are on modified lockdown, according to NISD spokesman Barry Perez. Those schools are Monroe May, Leon Springs and Bonnie Ellison elementary schools.

Students are being kept inside the schools but the exterior doors have been locked. 

 

Tricia Schwennesen is the Web Producer/News Editor for Texas Public Radio where she manages the station’s web site and social media accounts.
Louisa Jonas is an independent public radio producer, environmental writer, and radio production teacher based in Baltimore. She is thrilled to have been a PRX STEM Story Project recipient for which she produced a piece about periodical cicadas. Her work includes documentaries about spawning horseshoe crabs and migratory shorebirds aired on NPR's Weekend All Things Considered. Louisa previously worked as the podcast producer at WYPR 88.1FM in Baltimore. There she created and produced two documentary podcast series: Natural Maryland and Ascending: Baltimore School for the Arts. The Nature Conservancy selected her documentaries for their podcast Nature Stories. She has also produced for the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Distillations Podcast. Louisa is editor of the book Backyard Carolina: Two Decades of Public Radio Commentary. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her training also includes journalism fellowships from the Science Literacy Project and the Knight Digital Media Center, both in Berkeley, CA. Most recently she received a journalism fellowship through Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where she traveled to Toolik Field Station in Arctic Alaska to study climate change. In addition to her work as an independent producer, she teaches radio production classes at Howard Community College to a great group of budding journalists. She has worked as an environmental educator and canoe instructor but has yet to convince a great blue heron to squawk for her microphone…she remains undeterred.
Eileen Pace is a veteran radio and print journalist with a long history of investigative and feature reporting in San Antonio and Houston, earning more than 50 awards for investigative reporting, documentaries, long-form series, features, sports stories, outstanding anchoring and best use of sound.