SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police are trying to find the cause of a four-hour-long standoff at a Northwest Side motel Thursday morning.
Officers answered a call around 5:30 a.m. from workers at the Studio 6 Extended Stay motel on the 7700 block of Pasteur Court. The workers reported seeing a man wearing a mask and carrying a gun on their property.
Police said once the man saw them, he fired several shots at officers, ran upstairs and barged into a room with two guests.
“(He) took over the room at gunpoint. The two individuals fled the location. He went inside and barricaded himself,” San Antonio Police Department public information officer Sgt. Washington Moscoso said.
Additional officers arrived and helped to block off the area along Pasteur Court as well as nearby Fredericksburg Road.
Authorities also called in a SWAT team who began to try to negotiate with the man.
“I just saw the police and they were yelling, ‘Police! Come outside,’ telling the man to come outside,” said Jeremiah Austin, a motel guest.
Austin said he also had heard the earlier gunshots, although he dismissed them and continued sleeping.
His girlfriend, Mimi Chambers, woke him up, though, after seeing the commotion.
“They got trucks, police everywhere, ambulance, all that,” Chambers said. “So I’m being nosy, and I walk in the street a little bit. And the cop yelled at me and said, ‘Go back inside!’”
Like many of the other motel guests, Chambers and Austin sheltered in place for their own safety during the standoff.
Alondra Taylor, a seventh grader, was with her grandmother at the time, trying to get to other relatives at the motel.
“Nobody could really come in or come out. And they had the roads blocked in the back,” Taylor said.
After about four hours, police made an announcement to news crews that the incident had ended peacefully.
Roads in the area slowly reopened.
Police said they arrested 42-year-old Johnny Munoz. It’s unclear what new charges he faces now.
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