SAN ANTONIO – The Coliseum Oaks neighborhood where at least 50 shots were fired during a drive-by shooting Tuesday night is less than a mile from the AT&T Center.
Bexar County Sheriff’s Office spokesman James Keith said there were no big events Tuesday, but 10 days ago, deputies working outside a Spurs game reported hearing gunfire on the East Side.
Keith said deputies assigned to the area have been advised about the escalating violence.
“Be extra cautious, be vigilant, and be aware of the some of the situations that are going on now on that side of town,” Keith said.
Keith also said the deputies are being briefed on the latest.
“They are kept up to speed with conditions that are changing on a daily basis,” he said. “We feel confident that when people go to the AT&T Center, they’re going to be safe.”
Keith said the Sheriff’s Office that oversees security in and around the AT&T Center has procedures and people in place, if and when they’re needed.
Samuel Mooney, a resident of Coliseum Oaks, said he lives a block away from Tuesday night’s shooting in the 200 block of Fargo.
“It looked just like there was some horrific mass killing or something,” he said.
Mooney said he saw the evidence markers in the street for the dozens of rounds that were fired at a white vehicle parked in a driveway. Other bullets struck the home of a 93-year-old woman who hid in the corner of her living room, watching the gunfire flash around her front door.
Despite the hail of gunfire, only one person in the vehicle was wounded. Police said Darryl Pierce, 43, was wounded in the back, but he was expected to survive. The suspects drove off.
“Certain elements of our society are not thinking logically,” Mooney said. “They may not be thinking at all.”
Five months ago, Mooney said he was struck in the leg by gunfire as he stood outside his home.
Mooney said he believes it will take the entire East Side community to end the current wave of violence.
“They just need to be one massive voice in unison,” Mooney said. “It’s killing the East Side.”
He said that may anger those responsible for the violence or it may drive them away. But if they go elsewhere, Mooney said he worries.
“It’s like taking the malignancy and putting it on another innocent area,” he said.
