SAN ANTONIO – A man who was found shot dead in the backyard of a near West Side home apparently did not live at the residence, according to San Antonio police.
Officers responded to the home in the 300 block of Angela Street shortly after 6 a.m. Monday and discovered the man -- identified Monday afternoon as 29-year-old Richard Lopez -- lying face down in a backyard surrounded by a broken wooden fence.
"A neighbor called and said that they observed a male laying down in the backyard and there appeared to be some blood on the male," said Officer Douglas Greene, a spokesman for SAPD.
Greene said officers also noticed a gun near the body.
Still, he said, the shooting appeared to be a homicide.
"We are handling this as a murder," Greene said. "This is a murder."
Greene said it appears Lopez did not live in the home behind which his body was found. Lopez may have been shot as early as Sunday evening, when neighbors reported hearing gunshots in the area, he said.
One couple who lives nearby but didn't want to reveal their identities said they heard as many as eight shots fired.
"At first we thought it was fireworks. We didn't think anything of it, but we did see a car back there," said the unidentified woman.
"It was a lot of shots," she said. "I guess they were shooting back at each other."