SAN ANTONIO – Four people are dead after a triple murder-suicide and a fire at a home on the Southwest Side, San Antonio police and fire officials said.
San Antonio police were called to a home in the 7500 block of Dream Valley Street for a disturbance Monday afternoon. Firefighters were also called to the home for a reported fire.
First reponders said that when they arrived, they found two dead bodies of people in their 60s with gunshot wounds in front of the home.
San Antonio police said the bodies were probably taken out of the home by neighbors.
Two other dead bodies, one of an 80-year-old grandmother and the other of the suspect, were inside the home when firefighters went in to check.
It’s unclear how the grandmother inside died, but fire officials said no one inside would have been able to survive the fire because of the smoke.
A man who identified himself as Chris waited outside the scene. He said his seven children, who are 6 to 16 years old, were inside the home next door and heard shots.
He said they were terrified.
“My oldest he looks out the window and sees the bodies there,” Chris said.
He said his previous run-ins with the suspect made him uneasy.
"The guy carried an AK-47 inside the house. He was not a social guy," said a neighbor who only identified himself as Chris.
Police are still trying to determine the motive for the murders, and fire officials are working to determine the cause of the fire.
San Antonio Fire Department officials said crews fought the fire, which was mostly contained to a bedroom, defensively and let the fire burn until they made sure they could extinguish it from the outside.
Officials said the person who called to report the disturbance was the suspect’s sister, who was not at the home at the time.
Fire officials said 19 units responded to the fire and crews are still working to put out hot spots.
Fire officials said it took a long time to put the fire out because of the people found inside. They said crews had to wait for police to arrive.
No injuries to fire or police personnel were reported.