SAN ANTONIO – The East Side neighborhood where two men were shot and wounded on Tuesday night has been plagued by recent violence.
According to San Antonio Police Department figures, officers have answered 30 calls for service in the 300 block of Ferris Avenue since January. Two of those involved shootings,
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Previous news reports indicate that there also have been calls about violence along Bellinger Street, close to where it intersects with Ferris.
In the latest incident, Leonard Whitley, 60, and Donyea Johnson, 32, were shot and wounded as they stood in a parking lot at the intersection.
Officers said a group of men were involved in a fight before the shooting. They said some of them left, then returned and began shooting.
Police initially were looking for three shooters who were in three separate cars.
However, a later report said some of the victims and witnesses gave investigators conflicting information. Police did not make any arrests.
Another man was shot and wounded in the same parking lot last October.
And in May, Michael Whitley, 39, was fatally wounded outside a nearby home. Police later arrested Arthur Whitley, 38, in connection with that shooting.
They said at the time that the two men were somehow related. Police have not said if one of the latest victims, Leonard Whitley, also is a family member.
The spate of violence has some people in the neighborhood feeling uneasy.
"The good Lord takes care of me. That's the way I look at it, the good Lord takes care of me. You have to wake up in the morning and thank the good Lord for being here," said one man who did not want to be identified.
"They just, they just act crazy. I don't know, the younger generation," he said.
While the man said he's counting on a higher power to keep him safe, he also hopes that police will do something to stop the trouble.
