SAN ANTONIO -- A book signing event at the Oblate Grotto Ministry Center on Sunday featured the Rev. Francis Theodore Pfeiffer, who signed copies of his book, "When Wolves Came," that chronicles his years of fighting drug traffickers in Mexico.

Pfeiffer also spoke about his experiences, which including being shot at, during the event.

"They told me they were going to do that, but they didn't say when," Pfeiffer said of the shooting in March 1987 during an ambush while he was riding his Jeep on a highway to Oaxaca. He said that 12 bullet holes riddled the roof of his truck.

While the shooting was an attempt to scare Pfeiffer, 76, away from his ministry in Oaxaca, the priest refused to leave and stayed for 44 years at his parish.

"The hireling flees when the wolve comes, but the good shepherd remains and protects his sheep," Pfeiffer said of his reason to stay with his parishioners, who he said had no haven to seek refuge from the drug lords.

Pfeiffer said that he wrote down the names of at least 150 people who were slain. He also chronicled when and where they were shot and who was responsible.

Pfeiffer stayed at his parish in until he suffered a stroke in 2007. Once he recovered, Pfeiffer began writing about his experiences. He was then transferred to San Antonio.

"It should be a lesson to all of us and an inspiration," U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez of San Antonio, who attended the book signing, said of Pfeiffer. "We need more Father Teddies."