A 34-year-old man searching for his missing dog was slashed across the torso by a stranger who approached him on a trail inside Comanche Lookout Park before dawn on Saturday, and the attacker remains on the loose. San Antonio police say the victim and the suspect got into a physical altercation before the man pulled out a cutting instrument and cut him.
According to WOAI, San Antonio police responded shortly after 2:20 a.m. Saturday to the park, where officers tried to locate the suspect but could not find him. The suspect is described only as a man in his 30s or 40s. Police dispatch logs show officers were sent to a “Cutting In Progress” call at 2:26 a.m. Saturday, pinpointing the location as the T Trail inside the park, according to San Antonio Police Department dispatch records.
The investigation remains ongoing, and no suspect description beyond a general age range has been released. The victim's search for his dog put him inside the park well after its official closing time. Comanche Lookout Park, a 96-acre public space at 15551 Nacogdoches Road, closes at 11 p.m. under standard city park rules, according to the San Antonio Report.
A Park With Rugged Terrain and a Recent History of Violence
The park's landscape may help explain why officers struggled to track down the attacker overnight. Comanche Lookout reaches 1,340 feet above sea level, making it the fourth-highest point in Bexar County, and it borders the historic route of the El Camino Real de los Tejas along Nacogdoches Road, according to the National Park Service. Its dense brush and elevated terrain can complicate nighttime searches for suspects who flee into the surrounding land.
This is not the first violent incident tied to the park in recent months. In June, San Antonio police investigated a fatal stabbing near Comanche Lookout Park that triggered a heavy police presence and a helicopter search of the surrounding neighborhood before a suspect was taken into custody, according to a report from Fox San Antonio. And in January, a 20-year-old man died of carbon monoxide poisoning and his girlfriend was critically injured after an officer found them unconscious around 1 a.m. inside an idling car at the park — an incident Hoodline covered in a wrongful-death lawsuit story after the victim's family sued in July.
Renovations Underway as Overnight Incidents Persist
The park is currently in the middle of a $649,533 capital improvement project funded through a General Obligation Bond, with the City of San Antonio approving a task order with Belt Built Contracting LLC in December 2025 to widen trail paths and expand parking, according to the San Antonio Express-News. That project is scheduled for completion this fall, though it is unclear from available records whether the renovation includes any surveillance or trail-lighting upgrades aimed at overnight safety.
If caught, the suspect could face serious charges. Under Texas Penal Code § 22.02, using or exhibiting a cutting instrument to cause bodily injury constitutes Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in state prison and fines up to $10,000, according to the Thiessen Law Firm.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Outdoor Knife Attacks
The Comanche Lookout attack fits into a string of outdoor knife assaults San Antonio police have handled across the city in recent weeks, including park stabbings at Elmendorf Lake Park and Cuellar Park where suspects also fled before officers arrived, as Hoodline has reported previously. Citywide, San Antonio police logged 15,884 crimes against persons in the first half of 2026, a slight uptick from 15,709 during the same stretch in 2025, even as overall violent street crime had dropped 21.1% in 2025 under the city's Violent Crime Reduction Plan, per the San Antonio Report.
That mixed trend is shaping how the city allocates law enforcement resources. San Antonio's proposed 2026–2027 municipal budget calls for shifting six patrol detectives into the police department's Homicide and Special Victims units specifically to manage rising caseloads tied to non-fatal violent crimes such as aggravated assaults and stabbings, according to Texas Public Radio. Whether that shift will translate into increased overnight patrols near Comanche Lookout's Nacogdoches Road trailheads has not been addressed by police.
The suspect in Saturday's attack remains at large, and it is not known whether the victim's dog was ever found. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact San Antonio police as the investigation continues.
