SAN ANTONIO, Texas – A shooting that left a suspected car thief dead at a local apartment complex early Tuesday did not exactly come as a surprise to at least one man who lives there.
According to San Antonio police, the owner of an SUV shot and killed another man who he found trying to drive off in his vehicle.
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It happened at the Oxford at Estonia apartments, a gated complex located in the 8200 block of Micron Drive.
“It was a time bomb. Something was going to happen soon,” said one neighbor, who was not directly involved in the incident.
According to that man and other neighbors who spoke off-camera, car burglars and car thieves have been targeting vehicles in the complex repeatedly.
In the Tuesday morning incident, police say the 50-year-old SUV owner fired shots at the suspected thief, who had already begun to drive away in his vehicle.
The wounded suspect then got out of the would-be stolen vehicle and ran, before collapsing behind another building.
“Right before 4 a.m., I heard what sounded like firecrackers, and then about ten minutes later, there was nothing but sirens,” said the unidentified neighbor, who heard the gunshots. “When I came outside, they were already roping off the area. Overheard them saying something about blood splatter.”
The 40-year-old suspect left a trail of blood throughout the apartment complex.
When officers found him, he already was dead.
Bullet holes were clearly visible in the windshield of the SUV.
There also was a bullet hole in the window of an apartment across the parking lot.
A detective confirmed it was caused by a stray bullet, but no one in that home was hurt.
Detectives questioned the man who fired the shots.
However, as of late Tuesday morning, police still were referring to him as the victim, and they had not filed any charges.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released the name of the man who was killed.