SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police officers who were investigating a call about shots fired in a South Side neighborhood got an unpleasant surprise inside one home early Friday morning.
They say a man who was hiding in a bedroom of that home, located in the 8800 block of Topsey Street, tried to shoot them.
RELATED: Police standoff on South Side ends peacefully; man taken into custody
According to Chief William McManus, people who live in the home had called police around 3:30 a.m., believing that a 43-year-old man who lives in a shed behind their home was firing a handgun.
“Well it turns out that that individual living in the shed had broken into the home at night and was concealing himself in a bedroom,” McManus said.
Still under the belief that the gunman was outside, officers began clearing the three residents out of the home and searching it, room by room.
McManus said as they approached one bedroom, the suspect took them by surprise.
“(He) was hiding under covers of the bedroom,” he said. “When officers cleared the threshold of the doorway, he started shooting.”
The officers were able to fire back at the man, then backed out of the home where they called for a SWAT team.
About three hours later, as SWAT officers prepared to move in, the suspect walked out and surrendered, McManus said.
As officers took him into custody, they realized the man had been shot twice in his leg.
He was taken to a hospital for treatment.
McManus said it did not appear that the three people in the home were involved in the incident.
In fact, he says the suspect somehow managed to break into their home without their knowledge.
“I think we can say that we’re probably pretty lucky here because if he had intended to do anything to the individuals who live in the house, he could’ve very easily done that,” McManus said.
What the suspect is accused of doing, though, could add up to a long list of criminal charges.