A 35-year-old San Antonio man is dead after he was shot during an early-morning altercation over property near Hemisfair Plaza Way, and the person who pulled the trigger remains unidentified and at large. Jonathan Alderete was found with an apparent gunshot wound just before 5 a.m. Saturday and later died at a hospital, according to police.
Officers were dispatched to the 600 block of Hemisfair Plaza Way early Saturday after a call came in reporting a shooting in progress, as reported by WOAI. Police said Alderete had been involved in a physical altercation over property before he was shot, and that the unknown suspect fled the area afterward. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Investigators have not released a suspect description, and the case remains open.
The shooting happened near the Red McCombs Community Court in Tower Park at Hemisfair, a $1.8 million public basketball facility that opened in September 2025 through a partnership between the Spurs organization, the McCombs family, and Hemisfair, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The court was built as the first publicly accessible basketball facility in the district, a project meant to draw families and pickup games into the heart of downtown's redevelopment corridor.
Vigil Held for a Man Remembered for Bringing People Together
Family and friends gathered Sunday evening on the 300 block of Dora Street for a vigil, releasing red balloons in Alderete's memory. According to Univision, his family described him as someone who frequently brought people together through his love of basketball, a detail that resonates given where he was killed. Loved ones are now left to grieve alongside unanswered questions about who fired the shot and why.
Municipal service records show the call was logged as a shooting in progress under incident number SAPD-2026-1182202 in the Downtown division, dispatched before 5 a.m. Saturday, per city data compiled by ShootingsNearMe. The address places the shooting directly adjacent to San Antonio's Park Police Headquarters, which is also listed at 600 Hemisfair Plaza Way, a department that patrols more than 18,000 acres of parkland and downtown public space citywide.
Same Block Saw a Late-Night Brawl Less Than a Year Earlier
This is not the first time the block has drawn a heavy police response overnight. In October 2025, Park Police responded to a major disturbance at the same 600 block of Hemisfair Plaza Way, arresting three people after a 2:36 a.m. brawl in which a woman was charged with assaulting an officer, according to KENS 5. It remains unclear whether park surveillance cameras captured any footage of Saturday's shooting or the suspect's escape.
The exact property at the center of Saturday's dispute has not been disclosed by investigators. Under Texas Penal Code Section 9.42, deadly force in defense of property is legally justified only in narrow circumstances, such as preventing an immediate nighttime burglary or theft, or when non-deadly force would expose someone to a substantial risk of death or serious injury. If a suspect is identified and charged with murder, Texas law classifies the offense as a first-degree felony carrying a sentence of 5 to 99 years or life in prison, along with fines of up to $10,000.
A Violent Night Amid a Broader Drop in Crime
The killing comes even as San Antonio has posted multi-year declines in violent crime. Homicides across the city fell 8% in the first six months of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a Council on Criminal Justice analysis reported by the San Antonio Report, continuing a trend that has pushed homicides 12% below pre-pandemic levels. Overall reported crime in the city dropped more than 13% in 2025, according to figures Police Chief William McManus presented to the City Council, with department officials crediting targeted hotspot policing strategies.
The shooting also lands in a stretch of downtown undergoing rapid change. Hemisfair has seen major investment in recent years, including the January 2026 approval of 550 Market Street, a two-story retail and restaurant development designed to connect Civic Park with the River Walk, as previously reported by Hoodline. The area has also drawn large public gatherings, including a springtime Spurs playoff rally at Tower Park, underscoring how the district has become both a redevelopment showcase and, now, the site of a deadly early-morning shooting. Police have not said whether they have identified any leads on the suspect, and the investigation remains ongoing.
