Loved ones remember father killed in weekend drive-by shooting

Quinton Smith was killed on the city’s Northwest Side last Sunday

SAN ANTONIO – A hard worker and dedicated father -- that’s how Quinton Smith is being remembered by his loved ones.

As the balloons took flight, Dominique Smith held her youngest son. She’s a mother of four and now, a widow.

“I don’t know...it just doesn’t feel real. It just doesn’t feel the same anymore. I feel like I’m in a different world I guess,” Dominique, Quinton’s widow, said.

Her husband, 28-year-old Quinton, was killed last Sunday when he left a hookah lounge on West Avenue near Edgebrook Lane around 3 a.m.

“That was my heart,” Dominique said through tears.

San Antonio police said Quinton was walking to his car when a light-colored SUV drove down West Avenue and someone inside allegedly shot him twice in the leg.

“Doctor came in and said they tried to do all they could to revive him but he lost a lot of blood,” Verlinda Smith, Quinton’s mother, said

He died from his injury at University Hospital.

“It’s like somebody just ripped my heart out...you know,” Verlinda said.

Tommy Stringfellow has been friends with Quinton since the Smith family evacuated Hurricane Katrina.

“Little brother, 17 years. Like blood couldn’t make us thicker,” Stringfellow said.

He doesn’t understand how this could have happened to the man he strived to be like.

“Especially looking at his kids, and knowing that the person that he was, you know what I’m saying, just worked hard and take care of his family, you know what I’m saying. And I looked up to him a lot and I’m just like confused,” Stringfellow said.

Other friends theorize whoever shot Quinton made a mistake.

“I want to know, you know. I want justice. I want them to do their time because that’s not fair that my kids got to live on without him,” Dominique said.

Dominique is asking for answers because at this point, no one has been arrested in this shooting.

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About the Authors:

Leigh Waldman is a news reporter at KSAT 12. She joined the station in 2021. Leigh comes to San Antonio from the Midwest after spending time at a station in Omaha, NE. After two winters there, she knew it was time to come home to Texas. When Leigh is not at work, she enjoys eating, playing with her dogs and spending time with family.

Gavin Nesbitt is a photojournalist and video editor who joined KSAT in September 2021. He has traveled across the great state of Texas to film, conduct interviews and edit many major news stories, including the White Settlement church shooting, Hurricane Hanna, 2020 presidential campaigns, Texas border coverage and the Spurs.