Hours after a Thursday-night town hall, a 9-year-old girl ran into Ridgeview Elementary School on San Antonio's North Side, telling her principal that her father had just been shot across the street at a Valero gas station. Police later confirmed no shots were fired. But the panic was real, the 911 lines lit up, and a car crashed into the school's perimeter fence.
The calls came just before 7 a.m., when two back-to-back 911 calls came in near the school — one reporting a shooting on McCullough Avenue, another requesting a trauma response, according to KABB Fox San Antonio. The girl told the principal there had been a shooting at the gas station and that her father had been shot, the station reported. Police confirmed no shots were fired, but said ICE agents were on scene — and it remained unclear what happened to the girl's father.
ICE Says Fleeing Drivers Caused the Crash
Federal immigration officers were in the area conducting what ICE described as an enforcement and removal operation near McCullough Avenue and Loop 410, carried out by officers assigned to the San Antonio fugitive operations team, according to KSAT. ICE spokesperson Nina Pruneda told the station officers attempted a vehicle stop in the area. The driver, Pruneda said, “recklessly failed to comply with law enforcement, exited the vehicle and fled on foot, leaving an unoccupied vehicle in motion.”
That unoccupied vehicle then rolled across the street and struck a second vehicle along with Ridgeview Elementary's perimeter fence, per the ICE account relayed by KABB. The driver of that second vehicle also fled the scene rather than staying put, and ICE said it was unable to arrest either person. The crash involved a second vehicle and Ridgeview Elementary's perimeter fence. An ICE spokesperson said the first driver's actions created danger for motorists, pedestrians and the school community, adding that officers could not carry out their mission and that both people remained at large, endangering public safety. The spokesperson declined to release additional details, citing operational security.
Councilwoman Calls Fear and Trauma Unacceptable
District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur confirmed the girl ran to Ridgeview in fear and asked for help, per KABB's reporting. Kaur said the incident caused “unacceptable fear and panic” and inflicted devastating trauma on the girl and her family. The incident happened hours after a District 1 town hall Thursday night, where immigration enforcement was a prominent topic of discussion.
North East ISD was contacted for comment after the girl's report that her father had been shot, but the district said a response would not come Thursday, according to the same report. Gabriel Rosales, with the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the incident raises serious questions about federal immigration enforcement near children. “In what world do we live in that a child has to run in fear?” Rosales said, adding that enforcement actions carried out in front of children are unacceptable and that clear guidelines are needed. He called for accountability — including possible suspensions, terminations and potentially civil action depending on the damage caused. LULAC and Kaur both called for accountability and immediate changes to immigration enforcement tactics.
Part of a Broader Pattern of ICE Activity Locally
The Ridgeview incident lands amid a sharp rise in federal immigration enforcement across the San Antonio region. Federal statistics showed nearly 1,500 ICE arrests in the area since the start of 2025, according to an earlier KSAT report. The arrests included people with criminal convictions, pending criminal charges and alleged other immigration violations. Some arrests involved people charged with or convicted of crimes.
Congressman Joaquin Castro, who has pushed for more oversight of ICE operations, said immigration enforcement is a civil rather than criminal matter and argued that children and families are being deeply traumatized by current tactics. He said a better way to conduct immigration enforcement exists.
Ridgeview Elementary sits in San Antonio's North Side, and the episode has raised concerns about federal immigration enforcement near school communities. What remains unresolved here is what actually happened to the girl's father — a detail that, as of Thursday, neither police nor ICE had clarified.
