SAN ANTONIO – West Side neighbors said they were concerned about a 69-year-old for months before police officers shot and killed him while he was waving a handgun across the street from his home.
Five San Antonio Police Department officers shot the man in the 600 block of Aurora Avenue, according to Acting Police Chief Jesse Salame, after giving multiple verbal commands to drop the weapon.
Salame said the department had been called to the area multiple times for similar situations over the last month. It appeared as though the man might comply at one point, but ultimately did not.
Michelle Almanza, a neighbor, said she saw the shooting happen after she returned from church.
“(SAPD) even put their guns away and took out their taser,” Almanza said, “and that’s when he pulled out the gun on them.”
Neighbors said the man would talk to himself and started drinking at 5 a.m., more than 12 hours before police arrived.
Police have not confirmed any diagnoses of mental illness at this time, nor have officials linked it to what happened in the moments leading up to his death.
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The man was pronounced dead at the scene, and police said the five officers were placed on administrative duty, as is standard procedure.
Salame said there is no evidence the man fired his weapon, which was loaded.
Another resident, who asked to remain unidentified, recorded the moments that led up to the shooting through her window. Her daughter translated what she said she saw.
“She said that there’s female cops that yelled ‘no,’” the daughter said. “That’s when she thinks she saw that he kind of (motioned) near his waist. And she assumes that that’s what he was gonna pull out the gun. And then they all shot at him.”
The woman said it was not the first time she felt threatened by the man.
On a prior occasion, she said the man stood in the middle of the street and pointed his gun directly at her truck as she was pulling out of her driveway.
Neighbors said they have seen the man wearing an ankle monitor at one point. They also said he would disappear for stretches of time, then return and behave more erratically than before.
“I was relieved in a sense, because at least now we know the community was safe,” Almanza said. “But then... he really needed more help. How can you help somebody that doesn’t want it?”
SAPD has not yet released the identity of the man who was killed. The investigation is ongoing.
KSAT is working to obtain additional records and will report those details as new information becomes available.
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