SAN ANTONIO – A nearly 12-hour-long standoff involving San Antonio police had neighbors in one East Side neighborhood up almost all night.
The effort to take Mark Criollo, 29, into custody began Sunday afternoon, according to a police report, and didn’t end until around 1:30 a.m. Monday.
Police said Criollo is suspected of shooting and killing a 19-year-old man Sunday morning on East Commerce Street.
On Wednesday morning, the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim as Jordan Eli Bocanegra.
Bocanegra’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. The manner of death is being investigated as a homicide, according to the ME.
Bocanegra was found dead inside his car, which came to a stop near the intersection at North Polaris Street.
On Monday, the street corner was covered with candles and balloons left by those who knew the victim.
The police report said investigators developed leads after the 11 a.m. shooting, which led them to a home on Potomac Street near Gevers Street, where they suspected they’d find Criollo.
“Before they started to do anything, they negotiated for about three hours for the young man to come out. They called his mother,” said one neighbor, who spoke to KSAT 12 News anonymously. “Kudos to them. They were patient.”
Although police said the standoff started at 2 p.m., the neighbor said she didn’t notice police and SWAT officers in the area until around 7:30 p.m.
She said she watched the drama drag on for hours, with negotiators calling out to the suspect by name.
After she saw police cut the electricity to the home, the neighbor said it appeared the suspect stopped responding to them.
Ultimately, SWAT officers fired several rounds of tear gas into the home, the neighbor said.
“They tried everything they could before they did what they did to the house,” she said. “They warned him. They said, ‘Your father was a serviceman. He worked for 40 years to pay for this house. Don’t let your mama see it destroyed.’”
After daylight Monday morning, though, that damage was clearly visible. Several windows on the front of the home were shattered or blown out.
Criollo eventually was taken into custody and remains in the Bexar County jail, facing a charge of murder.
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