SAN ANTONIO – A chaotic brawl and shooting on the East Side left two people dead and others wounded late Monday night, San Antonio police said.
Police believe a total of seven people were shot when gunfire rang out before 10 p.m. at a car wash on North New Braunfels Avenue and Gibbs Street.
There had been a large crowd gathered in the parking lot at the car wash for hours before the violence started. Police at the scene said there were as many as 100 people there when officers arrived.
According to a preliminary SAPD report, several unknown suspects drove up into the car wash and began to fire multiple rounds at the crowd.
Witnesses told police they saw the alleged shooters flee the scene in a red car with a black stripe.
Officers arrived at the scene and also had to break up a disturbance that followed the shooting including people throwing bottles and yelling at police.
Several people who live in the area said even before the violence, the size of the crowd made them uneasy.
"It was a little off. It was too many guys and not too many guys were thinking about washing their car. They were just roaming around," said Pablo Martinez, who drove by the crowd Monday evening. "You see a dog inside a fence that's barking, you stay away from the fence."
Police said at one point, there were at least 50 officers trying to disperse the crowd when they began to hear reports of other possible victims.
"We've had calls at hospitals where we've had several people that have shown up with gunshot wounds." said SAPD Interim Chief Anthony Trevino.
Officers investigated the shooting at the scene for nearly seven hours Tuesday morning and found at least 20 shell casings on the ground.
"Apparently there was some bad blood between some of the folks who were there," said Trevino.
SAPD officials have not released any further information on the shooting suspects and said the investigation is ongoing, but did say many hospitals in the area were receiving many patients with gunshots wounds.