A shootout erupted outside a popular San Antonio mall Thursday afternoon leaving one man dead and two others in the hospital. It also caused an angry brother to unjustifiably trash the victim.
KNES-TV reported that a local shopper noticed his truck had been stolen and tracked it to the other side of South Park Mall.
San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) revealed there were two people sitting inside the stolen vehicle: a man in the driver’s seat and a woman in the passenger’s seat.
The owner approached his truck and demanded the suspected thieves exit. But the driver instead made a fatal decision.
The man in the driver’s seat shot the owner in cold blood and the owner promptly returned fire in self-defense. The suspected thief was killed and his female accomplice injured .
The woman was taken to the hospital and is reportedly in critical condition. The truck owner was also hospitalized and is in stable condition, according to SAPD.
The Daily Mail captured video showing the aftermath of the shooting. Notice the dead thief is blurred out while his female accomplice is getting treated for injuries.
Blood is splattered down her leg and there is a pool of blood coming from the dead man’s head in the parking lot.
VIDEO:
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus correctly called this a case of self-defense though he personally felt the owner should have contacted law enforcement instead.
The bad guy is the one dead, yes. The driver of the stolen vehicle is deceased, shot by the owner of the stolen vehicle.
The owner of the stolen vehicle certainly has the right to track down his stolen vehicle. Now we would prefer that they call the police before taking that into your own hands, but he did what he felt he needed to do.
Defense attorney Nico LaHood agreed and detailed why under Texas law the owner was completely within his rights.
Citizens have a right to prevent the consequences of a theft. In that prevention of consequences, you can use force to prevent a theft. You can use physical force, but the law also says you can display a weapon.
That is considered force, but it’s not considered deadly force.
Jose Garcia, the brother of the thug who hijacked the vehicle, was too dumb to comprehend this basic fact. He instead blamed the owner for having the audacity to recover his property and defend himself.
Here is what he told KNES-TV at the scene.
The victim was my brother and there are two sides to every story. Whether my brother was wrong or right, he had a gun pointed at him.
I guess he took it upon himself to defend himself. The guy who shot him is a vigilante, not a hero.
A vehicle is not worth taking someone’s life, I don’t care what kind of car it is. You don’t take the law into your own hands. Now my mom, my family, we all have to suffer and just deal with it.
McManus told reporters that it’s unknown at this point if any charges will be filed. The investigation remains ongoing.