Aaron Collins was standing outside his apartment on San Antonio's West Side around 1:23 a.m. on September 1, 2025, when a silver four-door Mercedes pulled up to meet him. Within moments, a suspect chased the 21-year-old around the building and shot him in the chest. Collins was pronounced dead at the scene, and one year later, no arrest has been made.
The shooting happened at an apartment complex at 10809 Westwood Loop, according to Crime Stoppers of San Antonio, which cataloged the case under SAPD case number SAPD25176866. As reported by WOAI, the silver Mercedes had been seen waiting to enter the complex before it met with Collins, and it was accompanied by a white single-cab GMC pickup truck. After the shooting, the suspect fled in the Mercedes, which investigators say had damage to its rear driver-side bumper — possibly a hole — along with an illuminated front emblem.
A Year Without an Arrest
Collins was born on March 14, 2004, and died at age 21 on the same date his life would end a year later, according to his obituary posted by Meadowlawn Funeral Home. The station's report notes that authorities are still investigating the murder and have not identified a suspect by name. Crime Stoppers is now seeking information about the case, and tipsters can call the organization at 210-224-7867 or submit an online tip.
Anyone who provides information leading to a felony arrest can collect a cash reward of up to $5,000 through Crime Stoppers, a station report notes. Under Article 37.073 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, according to FindLaw, a judge can later order a convicted defendant to repay all or part of that reward money if a tip leads to a felony conviction.
A City With Fewer Killings — But Fewer Solved
Collins' case unfolded against a backdrop of falling homicide numbers citywide. San Antonio recorded 105 homicides in 2025, the third consecutive year of decline after 127 in 2024 and 165 in 2023, according to KSAT. The city's overall crime rate also dropped to 8,986 reported incidents per 100,000 residents in 2025, down 13 percent from its 2023 peak, per the San Antonio Express-News. Officials have credited SAPD's Violent Crime Reduction Plan, launched in 2023, with a 21.1 percent drop in violent street crime citywide in 2025 through targeted hotspot policing, as reported by the San Antonio Report.
Yet fewer homicides haven't translated into more solved cases. Texas crime data analyzed for 2024 showed SAPD's homicide clearance rate stood at roughly 25.1 percent, meaning about three out of four homicides that year went unsolved, according to Right On Crime. That gap helps explain why cases like Collins' can sit open for a full year even as the city's broader violence numbers trend downward, and why tip lines and reward money remain central tools for investigators working cold leads.
How Overnight Homicides Get Investigated
SAPD's Homicide Unit runs daytime shifts from 7:45 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. daily, with overnight callouts like the one that followed Collins' shooting handled instead by the department's Night Criminal Investigations Detail, according to the City of San Antonio. In Texas, murder cases carry no statute of limitations, and unsolved homicides can eventually be referred to the Texas Rangers' Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program, a unit created on September 1, 2001, specifically to help local agencies work cold cases, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
For now, investigators are focused on the silver Mercedes and its companion GMC pickup, hoping someone who saw the vehicles near Westwood Loop that night — or who knows who was driving — picks up the phone. A year after Collins was chased down outside his own home and shot, his family and San Antonio police are still waiting for that call.
