SAN ANTONIO – A man was arrested after shooting his ex-girlfriend’s mother and tying up a teenager following a break-up, San Antonio police said.
Officers said the man was upset that his ex-girlfriend went into hiding after she broke up with him and asked him to move out.
James Cody Sweetman, 29, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful restraint following the Oct. 4 shooting, booking records with the Bexar County Jail show.
Anna De La Cruz, the ex-girlfriend’s mother, said that when she asked Sweetman to move out, he agreed but pulled a gun.
“I had my hands up. I said, please don’t do this. I’m just trying not to make eye contact because I know it’s coming; I know that’s going to be the end of my life because he had it at my head,” said De La Cruz
De La Cruz was shot in the hand and stomach. She said they were warning shots as Sweetman demanded she call her daughter, who was in hiding.
The mother adds that her memory is hazy but that she fought back.
“I remember him fighting the gun, like trying to pull it away from me, but he just emptied it and ran off,” said De La Cruz.
The 17-year-old, who Sweetman had duck-taped his hands and locked in a shed in the backyard, had escaped and called 9-1-1 from a neighbor’s home.
Police were arriving at De La Cruz’s home as Sweetman fleed.
“Just the person who I thought he was I was liking him I was liking him for my daughter. I didn’t know anything about Cody’s history if I would have known all this… I would have had a police officer right away” De La Cruz said.
De La Cruz explained when she was in the hospital, an SAPD detective told her Sweetman had a criminal history. Sweetman has felonies in Oklahoma from 2012 for soliciting for murder.
“I don’t have peace in this home I will never have peace as long as he knows where we are at, I will never have peace,” said De La Cruz
Records show Sweetman was booked on Wednesday, and his bond is set at $100,000.