SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Police are releasing minimal information on a body found in the parking lot of a West Side apartment complex on Friday, shortly before noon.
Police were called out at 11:47 a.m. to the Westward Plaza Apartments and Townhomes in the 2600 block of Westward Drive, near the intersection of West Military Drive and US-90, said San Antonio Police spokesman Nick Soliz. Police are treating the death as a homicide investigation.
However, Soliz did not provide any information on how the person may have been killed, whether they lived at the apartment complex, or even their gender.
“That’s up to the MXE - to the medical examiner - to make that determination as it is a medical examiner case,” Soliz said of the last question.
Investigators did not have any witnesses, he said, and it would be up to homicide detectives to determine if the victim had been killed in the parking lot or if their body had been dumped there.
Just a few yards away from where the body was found, resident Mary Aguilera hadn’t even known anything was happening until KSAT knocked on her door.
“It’s usually really quiet around here,” Aguilera said. “Since I’ve been here - I’ve been here since September, and I haven’t heard any incidents or anything.”
Aguilera also noted, “this used to be a really drug-infested area. So it could have something to do with that. I’m not sure.”
A few doors down from her, Rodolfo Padilla said he wasn’t surprised something like this had happened.
“There’s drug problems here, drug issues,” he said, “and a lot of people, like I said, are hanging around here. And I don’t appreciate that...not one bit,”
When KSAT asked about the allegations of drug activity, a woman with the apartment complex’s management declined to comment.
KSAT also emailed SAPD to request the list of calls for service to the complex over the previous year to try to confirm the allegations. As of 5 p.m. Friday, KSAT had not received the records, though a spokesman said they were working on the request.