SAN ANTONIO – Neighbors of a man found dead Monday night inside the garage of a burning North Side home are questioning whether it all could have been prevented.
The home on Chartwell Drive had been the site of numerous 911 calls, including about a half dozen made on Monday. San Antonio firefighters and police responded to the home for the last time of the day at approximately 7:30 p.m.
According to a report, the mother of a 54-year-old man reported that her son was inside a garage apartment and started a fire. Officers said they initially tried to get the man to come out of the garage, but he refused.
What began as a small fire with light smoke erupted into a full blaze. The fire then spread to the main house attached to it, police said.
“At some point, we started smelling smoke,” said Mary Cynthia Oraekwa, a neighbor who lives one street over. “We started wondering, ‘OK, where is this smoke from?’”
Oraekwa said she walked around the neighborhood, which is not far from Interstate 10 and Wurzbach Road, and tried to find the source of the smoke.
She only learned what had happened while watching the news later Monday night.
After putting out the fire, fire investigators said they found the body of the man inside the garage. The man’s mother had already made it out safely early on, and police officers rescued three dogs.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday identified the man found dead in the home as Michael Gallegos.
The cause of death was thermal injuries and smoke inhalation, with the manner of death pending, according to the medical examiner’s office.
The fire, though, was only the end of what had been a volatile day.
In a 911 call, police officers said they received an estimated three hours prior to the fire, they had reports of a disturbance involving a gun.
“I woke up, and I saw all these lights,” said John Zamot, who saw the commotion after officers poured onto his street. “And I looked out and there were a whole bunch of cars, police cars and ambulances.”
They tried unsuccessfully during that earlier call to contact the man who was reported to be inside the same home, a report stated. Ultimately, those officers left the scene.
Several neighbors who live close to the home approached KSAT 12 News crews Tuesday morning and questioned why police hadn’t done more to detain Gallegos and, perhaps, prevent his death.
Some speculated that had officers taken him into custody earlier in the day, he may not have had the chance to set fire to the home.
A police report states that at the time of the disturbance call, Gallegos was not presenting a threat to anyone else.
Sgt. Washington Moscoso, a public information officer for the San Antonio Police Department, said that because Gallegos was not presenting a threat to others, officers legally had no right to enter the home.
He said a police department policy calls for officers to de-escalate situations like Monday night’s before disengaging, or backing off.
On Tuesday morning, a strip of crime scene tape stretched across the gutted home.
A steady stream of cars crept down to the end of the cul-de-sac as people got a firsthand look at the damage.
Among them was Oraekwa.
“It is so scary,” Oraekwa said. “I mean, the damages and stuff.”
Another neighbor told KSAT 12 News the mother of Gallegos is now staying with other relatives.
More coverage of this story on KSAT: