SAN ANTONIO – A man is in critical condition after San Antonio police say he was shot multiple times in the parking lot of an H-E-B on the Northeast Side.
Police said they are searching for at least two, possibly three people, who may have been the gunmen. The victim, who is believed to be in his early 20s, was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center.
Around 4:58 p.m. Monday, officers went to the H-E-B in the 6500 block of FM 78 where they found bystanders providing first aid to the victim near the front of the store.
Police said an argument involving several people in the H-E-B parking lot escalated to the exchange of gunfire.
As the man was running away toward the H-E-B entrance, the gunmen continued to fire shots at him striking him several times in the abdomen and once in the back, according to police.
Police said they are now interviewing multiple witnesses who said they heard five to six gunshots and then saw several people running from the scene.
Gabriel Adamez, who works next to the area where police say the shooting started, said he heard the gunshots from a nearby window.
"I knew it was near us. I was just nervous they were going to run into our store and try to hide from the cops in there," he said. "I was scared because we had customers. I still had my crew in there. We closed the windows. Everybody got inside."
No one else in the parking lot was injured.
H-E-B released the following statement to KSAT.com:
At H-E-B, the safety of our customers and Partners is our top priority. We are extremely proud of our Partners for acting quickly to isolate the incident and insure the store was safe for both our customers and Partners.
An individual who was injured in the shopping center parking lot ran to the store to seek help. Before EMS arrived, bot H-E-B Partners and customers quickly provided first aide and utilized a “Stop the Bleed” kit which can be found in each of store locations.