A 33-year-old man was stabbed to death just after midnight outside a West Side apartment complex in the 1000 block of San Fernando Street, and San Antonio police have now arrested two men, ages 48 and 35, in connection with the killing. Officers responded to a stabbing call near Guadalupe Street and found the victim suffering from multiple stab wounds before he was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
According to KENS 5, officers responded to the reported outside stabbing at 12:19 a.m. Wednesday and, per the San Antonio Police Department, called in the department's SWAT team after learning several people were involved and inside a nearby apartment. Witnesses told investigators in a preliminary report that multiple people were present during the confrontation, according to SAPD. The SWAT team removed occupants from the apartment and detained them shortly after arriving, and authorities eventually took two suspects into custody.
As KSAT reports, the exact reason the victim was at the apartment complex remains unknown, and the specific charges the two men face have not yet been made public. The suspects' identities have also not been released, and it is unclear what relationship, if any, they had with the man who died.
A Corridor With a History of Violence
This is not the first violent incident along San Fernando Street's West Side stretch. Hoodline previously reported that a 47-year-old man was stabbed near Cuellar Park in August, and in March another man was stabbed on the West Side with the suspect still being sought at the time. In September 2025, a 35-year-old man was shot and killed outside an apartment building along San Fernando Street during an argument, a case that resulted in murder charges against his 29-year-old cousin, according to KENS 5. The corridor's troubled history stretches back further still — in June 2016, a 7-year-old girl was killed in a shooting near Cuellar Park just off San Fernando Street, an incident that prompted extensive police patrols and community safety initiatives across the surrounding blocks, per the San Antonio Express-News.
What the Charges Could Look Like
If prosecutors ultimately file murder charges, the two men would face a first-degree felony under Texas Penal Code Section 19.02, which carries a prison term of 5 to 99 years or life imprisonment along with a fine of up to $10,000, according to Saputo Toufexis. Should investigators determine the case instead involved a deadly assault falling short of intentional killing, Texas courts could pursue aggravated assault with a deadly weapon under Section 22.02, a second-degree felony punishable by 2 to 20 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000, per Flatiron Legal Advisors. Texas courts routinely classify knives and other bladed weapons as deadly weapons in physical altercations.
A Citywide Drop in Homicides
The West Side stabbing lands amid a broader citywide decline in violent crime. A Council on Criminal Justice analysis released in July found that San Antonio homicides dropped 8% during the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, pushing the city's homicide rate 12% below pre-pandemic levels, according to the San Antonio Report. That builds on a multi-year decline: San Antonio Police Department data reported by KSAT in February showed the city recorded 105 homicides in 2025, down from 127 in 2024, 165 in 2023, and a peak of 231 in 2022.
An evaluation by University of Texas at San Antonio criminologists published in March found that citywide homicides dropped 18.5% and violent street crime fell 21.1% in 2025 following the implementation of SAPD's Violent Crime Reduction Plan, a targeted hotspot policing strategy the city launched in 2023 to combat localized violent crime spikes. A separate San Antonio Express-News analysis of police data published in August found the city's overall crime rate fell to 8,986 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2025, a 13% drop from the 2023 peak of 10,342 per 100,000, even as certain property offenses saw modest gains.
Despite those citywide improvements, personal disputes among acquaintances remain a major driver of local violence. San Antonio Police Department crime statistics presented in April 2025 indicated that personal disputes and high-risk behaviors account for a majority of local violent homicides and stabbings, even as violent crime against persons fell 12.8% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, according to the City of San Antonio. Investigators have not said whether Wednesday's stabbing fits that pattern, and the motive behind the confrontation remains under investigation.
