A 20-year-old man showed up at a San Antonio hospital with a gunshot wound early Sunday after a dispute between two groups in a parking lot in the 4500 block of North Loop 1604 West turned violent. San Antonio police officers were dispatched around 1:27 a.m. for a reported shooting, but when they arrived at the scene, they found no shooting victims or complainants waiting for them.
According to News 4 San Antonio, a gunshot was fired during the parking lot disturbance between the two groups, and the 20-year-old later turned up at a local hospital with the wound. His condition was not immediately provided, and police have not released a description or any other information about a possible suspect. Investigators told the outlet that what led up to the shooting remains unclear, and no arrests have been made.
A Block With a Troubled History
This is not the first time gunfire has broken out in this stretch of North Loop 1604 West, near Lockhill Selma Road and Northwest Military Highway. Just six months earlier, in February, two men — 27-year-old Derek Deshaun Brown and 50-year-old Kyung Lee — were fatally shot in an outdoor smoking area outside Myst Hookah Lounge in the same block following an argument inside the venue, a shooting Hoodline covered in February. San Antonio police later arrested 34-year-old Joseph Anthony Amador and 35-year-old Lauren Tayler Machado-Juarez, charging both with capital murder of multiple persons, according to KENS 5, which reported that surveillance footage helped investigators track down the suspects' vehicle.
The pattern stretches back further still. In June 2018, 25-year-old Brandon Cornelius was fatally shot while sitting in a parked car outside a nightclub at The Ridge Shopping Center, also in the 4500 block, as reported by MySA, which noted the case remained unsolved a year later when his family held a public memorial. And in May 2014, 26-year-old Miguel Vasquez was killed while trying to break up a bar brawl in the same block; a Bexar County district court convicted 39-year-old Daniel Garza in that case in January 2016, per the San Antonio Express-News.
What Charges Could Follow
Texas law offers investigators several paths depending on what they eventually determine happened in Sunday's shooting. Under Texas Penal Code Section 22.02, an assault committed with a deadly weapon is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to FindLaw. Separately, Section 22.05 makes knowingly discharging a firearm at or in the direction of people, occupied buildings, or vehicles a third-degree felony carrying two to 10 years, while misdemeanor deadly conduct can apply to reckless endangerment that doesn't involve firing a weapon.
No suspect description has been released, and it remains unclear whether investigators have recovered surveillance footage or a suspect vehicle description from nearby businesses. Crime Stoppers of San Antonio routinely offers cash rewards of up to $5,000 for anonymous tips that lead to felony arrests in active investigations, a resource that has helped move stalled cases forward in the past.
Part of a Broader, Improving Trend
Even as this particular commercial strip keeps drawing gunfire, San Antonio's citywide numbers have been moving in the other direction. An analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice found that San Antonio homicides fell 8% during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, putting the city's homicide rate 12% below pre-pandemic levels, according to the San Antonio Report. A University of Texas at San Antonio evaluation cited in the same report credited SAPD's Violent Crime Reduction Plan, launched in 2023, with helping drive an 18.5% drop in homicides and a 21.1% drop in violent street crime across the city in 2025.
Separately, SAPD data presented to the City Council showed overall violent crime against persons dropped 9% in 2025 compared with 2024, including a 9% decline in assaults, per KSAT. Police reported 28,361 violent crime cases citywide in 2025, down from 31,179 the year before. Still, commercial strips like this one along Loop 1604 continue to serve as localized flashpoints even as the broader trend lines improve, and anyone with information about Sunday's shooting is urged to come forward as SAPD's investigation continues.
