SAN ANTONIO – A Northwest Side business where a clerk was stabbed to death early Friday had been under surveillance for several weeks earlier this year, according to San Antonio Police Department data obtained by KSAT.
Police made dozens of visits to the store in the 4000 block of Medical Drive between January and March, for what the department listed as “Crime Plan-High Visibility.”
These visits are intended to deter crime in areas with a high volume of calls, according to SAPD’s public information office.
Prior to the deterrance calls, the data shows more than 100 calls for police service were made at Classic Mart and 420 Shop, which appears to be a combined convenience store and smoke shop, including disturbances, some involving guns, and holdup alarms.
Police said they received the call about the recent stabbing around 1 a.m. Friday, however, it originally came in as a shooting.
When officers arrived, they found the 25-year-old clerk with multiple stab wounds, which ultimately led to his death.
“When I found out, it was crazy,” said Domanick Turley, who works at a neighboring business. “From what I know, he didn’t have no problems with no one. Everyone who went in there at night, they liked him.”
Turley said he got to know the victim fairly well because they both worked the overnight shift at their respective businesses.
Police said it appears the worker was killed during some sort of disagreement.
Within hours, they said they developed leads on who the suspect might be.
Officers later surrounded an apartment across the street from the murder scene, then began calling people out of the particular unit.
Mark Pollard, who lives in a nearby apartment, says he woke up to the commotion.
“I saw all the dogs barking and the guns drawn,” he said. “I started recording to see what was going on, and I couldn’t even come to the end of the rail. The cops were telling me to stand back.”
Pollard said he was surprised and a bit shaken to see the trouble so close to the place that he and his family call home.
The video he shared with KSAT shows officers ordering people to slowly walk backwards out of the apartment with their fingers interlaced behind their heads.
Police ended up taking several people into custody for questioning.
Later, a homicide detective told KSAT 12 a 17-year-old boy had been arrested as a suspect in the murder.
As of Friday afternoon, police had not released any names of the suspect or the victim.
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