SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Police Department Chief William McManus said officers are investigating a possible link between two targeted shootings that happened across the city over the weekend.
McManus provided an update on Monday following three known targeted attacks, including a fatal shooting at North Star Mall on Sunday. In two other incidents on Friday and Saturday, two teenagers were shot dead.
“We believe at this moment that a couple of these shootings may have some nexus. There may be some relationship between them, however, it remains, we believe, a fact that these are all targeted incidents,” McManus said. “Each of these events was targeted and not random.”
Watch McManus’ press conference in the video player below:
Further details about the incidents, including suspect names or motives, were limited. He did not say if the shootings were affiliated with gangs.
The latest deadly shooting happened on Sunday afternoon when two gunmen in hooded sweatshirts walked inside a barber shop in North Star Mall and shot a man as he got a haircut.
The victim, identified as 33-year-old Adam Glass, was pronounced dead at the scene.
McManus said it appeared the suspects were dropped off before they went to the barbershop. They fled in the vehicle they were dropped off in, and the actual shooting took less than 10 seconds, he added.
Officers canvassed the area but were unable to locate them.
Another targeted shooting took place on Saturday afternoon at the Antioch Village Apartments in the 1500 block of Upland Road.
McManus said an 18-year-old man was killed during the shootout. The victim was identified as Geremiah Hardeman, and he was not the intended target, McManus said. Two others were taken to the hospital in critical condition.
On Friday afternoon, a targeted drive-by shooting at an apartment complex in the 5100 block of Eisenhauer Road killed a 15-year-old boy. He was identified as Christopher Michael Telfair Jr.
Three other people, including a 5-year-old boy, were injured and taken to a hospital.
McManus said it appeared that the shooting was the result of “payback” following an incident that happened weeks prior at Roosevelt High School.
“This was not the first attempt to get to the individual that they were targeting,” McManus said.
He added that an arrest for a suspect in the shooting death of a 2-year-old last month is forthcoming. In that case, Mackenzie Hernandez Garcia was killed in a drive-by shooting on May 8 in the 100 block of Future Drive.
She was standing close to the front door when she was struck by a bullet.
McManus reiterated that the shootings appear to be targeted and were not random mass shootings. When asked about the cause of gun violence among young men, he said he couldn’t give an exact answer for the “complex” situation.
“There’s a lot of issues right now that I think are causing gun violence throughout this country,” he said. “One of them, obviously, is the access to firearms. It seems like anyone who wants to carry a gun is carrying it.”
Also on Sunday, a 16-year-old boy was shot during a confrontation on the West Side, another person was shot during an argument at a Northeast Side hotel, and a third person was shot during an argument on the Northwest Side.
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