SAN ANTONIO – A late-night murder along the Leon Creek Greenway now has some people avoiding the area, even in the daylight.
San Antonio police say someone shot and fatally wounded Francisco De Los Santos, 27, just before 10 p.m. Thursday.
According to a preliminary police report, he was sitting on a cliff along the greenway, not far from the Border Brook Trailhead, when two men tried to rob him.
The report says he was shot several times when he resisted.
The gunmen got away.
By morning, it was all that some people who live nearby could think about.
“Somebody told me they heard gunshots over here last night when we were going down to the store,” said Debbie Eschelman. “I live over here, like, right down the street!”
Eschelman drove by the trailhead Friday morning to see if the rumors she heard about the deadly shooting were true.
She said she had noticed about a half dozen patrol cars in the area when she went to work late Thursday night.
“I was going to go walk on that trail too. Nope! Not happening. Nope. I like my life,” Eschelman said.
Elisa Herrera says even before the murder, she routinely avoided the area.
“I don’t even walk in there at all,” Herrera said. “It’s very dark at night and they could at least put a light or they could put a gate too, as well, so that nobody could go in there.”
A sign posted at the trailhead showed the area closes at sunset.
It also showed that this was not the first time there had been gunfire in the area because the sign was full of bullet holes.
Park police showed up at the trailhead early Friday morning to conduct routine patrols.
Still, neither Eschelman nor Herrera say they any have plans to explore the area anytime soon.