SAN ANTONIO – Although he was due for an early shift at work, Alejandro Martinez had no need for an alarm clock Monday morning.
He woke up just before 4:30 a.m. due to a commotion going on next door to his home on Tropical Drive near Palm Bay.
“We heard (someone say) ‘SAPD!’ There were a couple of knocks and then we heard, ‘Gun! Gun!’ And then that’s when the shots went off,” he said.
San Antonio police shoot man holding gun at Northeast Side home
It was his neighbor who had been wounded, shot by a police officer.
“It sounded like the family was screaming and crying,” he said.
Chief William McManus later told reporters the officer who fired his weapon was one of two who responded to a call for domestic violence.
He said the man’s teenage daughter had dialed 9-1-1, saying that her parents were fighting.
After she opened the door to police, things escalated, McManus said.
“Two officers standing in the doorway,” he said. “The adult male in the house comes around the corner, says something to the effect of ‘Who the (expletive) is that?’ He’s got a gun in his hand.”
At some point after that, McManus said, one of the officers pulled out his own gun and fired shots at the man, hitting him as many as two times.
The man was rushed to a hospital, but is expected to survive.
McManus was not able to say exactly what caused the escalation.
He said he had not yet had a chance to watch the video from the officer’s body camera.
However, he did say that when the teen called 9-1-1, she mentioned her father had a history of violence.
Several neighbors, including Martinez, told KSAT12 they had never witnessed any trouble at the home.
“This was the first time seeing the police here,” Martinez said. I know it’s, like a quiet neighborhood, a real quiet neighborhood."
After what happened, though, that particular home will be getting a lot of attention from police as they continue their investigation.