SAN ANTONIO – One of the charges against a suspect in the shooting of a woman and her two young daughters in their North Side home has been upgraded to capital murder.
San Antonio police have confirmed that one of the children has died. The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office said the child was an 11-month-old girl.
Two other children, 8- and 11-year-old boys, were able to escape the home uninjured, police said.
The report also identified the shooting suspect as Stephen Michael Clare, 50. He also faces two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Early in the investigation, police labeled this as a domestic violence case.
The shootings happened around 7 p.m. Monday inside the family’s home, located in the 500 block of Robinhood Place.
Police arrested Clare a short time later at his home in the 1500 block of Haskin Drive.
“This is horrible, the impact on the family and the kids,” said Rene Robichaux, PhD.
Robichaux, who is a licensed clinical social worker who handled domestic violence cases for the U. S. Army, happened to walk past Clare’s home Tuesday morning.
He said he did not know Clare or the family personally, but said in the cases he has seen, relationship troubles often are at the root.
Robichaux theorized what might make a person act violently toward a child.
“Usually when that happens it’s a homicide followed by a suicide,” he said. “We do the best we can to avoid situations like this through mediation and a variety of interventions.”
Other neighbors told KSAT 12 News they knew very little about Clare, who worked as a contracted nurse practitioner at The Emergency Clinic of Alamo Heights, the director of nursing confirmed to KSAT.
Neighbors said they had noticed a woman and children at the home in the past, but it had been some time since they had seen them there.
As of late Tuesday morning, police had not released the names of the surviving victims.