Resident reflects on neighborhood violence after back-to-back deadly shootings

Longtime resident: 'It wasn't like this, and I don't know what's going on'

SAN ANTONIO – A longtime resident of El Paso Street said his once-peaceful street has become a hotspot for violence after back-to-back deadly shootings.

Sitting on the steps of what was his parents’ home and is now his, Domingo Garcia, 76, feels angry.

"I grew up here," Garcia said. "It wasn't like this, and I don't know what's going on."

For two nights, violence has been what's going on along the 3500 block of El Paso Street, where Garcia lives. On Wednesday, police say what appeared to be a fight between two families ended with a man shot in the head.

The next night, at the other end of the block, another man was shot and killed.

"It's been a peaceful street. It has, and I took pride in that," Garcia said. "But things change."

Garcia, who lives between both scenes, was around for both shootings.

On Wednesday, he "just heard shots and saw a kid laying on the street there bloodied."

The next night, "I saw the red lights outside my window and it was at least 10 police cars, and they had another shooting down the street, another killing," Garcia said.

It isn't that fighting is new for the neighborhood.

"It was families that had four, five sons ... but when there was what they called a rumble, it was just fists and bats, baseball bats maybe - you know, maybe like the Irish - the old Irish. That was it," Garcia said. "But now life seems to have taken a turn for the worse. There's no value in life."

Julius Barron, 18, and Christian Lozano, 20, were charged with aggravated assault in the Wednesday shooting that killed Glen Montellano.

Christopher Lozano, 34, was killed in Thursday's shooting.

Police have said the two shootings may be connected.

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About the Author:

Garrett Brnger is a reporter with KSAT 12.