One man is dead and another is hospitalized in grave critical condition after a San Antonio police chase that began on the South Side ended in gunfire at an Alamo Ranch gate just after midnight. Street crimes officers had tried to pull over a car carrying two men when the pursuit began, and it ended miles away in a quiet residential entrance off Lone Star Pass and Wild Pine.
According to News 4 San Antonio, the driver stopped the vehicle at the gate, and the passenger got out, pulled out a gun, and was shot and killed by one of the pursuing officers. Police say the driver then shot himself inside the car and was rushed to the hospital in grave critical condition, the station reported. The chase that preceded the shooting started on the South Side before winding its way into the Alamo Ranch area on the city's West Side.
Officer Placed on Administrative Duty
The officer who fired the fatal shot has been with the department for five years and has been placed on administrative duty, according to News 4 San Antonio. That is standard practice following officer-involved shootings while the circumstances are reviewed. Fox San Antonio reported that the shooting occurred near Lone Star Parkway and Alamo Ranch Parkway, a location description that differs from the more specific gate address off Lone Star Pass and Wild Pine detailed in the fuller account of the incident.
Fox San Antonio also noted that a person identified as Kristina De Leon was on the scene of the shootout with police, according to the outlet. Beyond that detail, the station's report did not add further description of what she witnessed or her connection to the incident.
A Second West Side Shooting Last Month
This is not the first time San Antonio police have been involved in a shooting on the city's West Side this fall. On October 25, four undercover officers shot a man identified by police as Jacob Rigo Luna after he fired at them from a vehicle during a pursuit, according to KSAT. Police said Luna fired his weapon at the officers following him, and all of the undercover officers fired back.
Luna was taken into custody near the 1700 block of Horal Drive with multiple gunshot wounds and was hospitalized in critical condition, KSAT reported. Police said at the time that he was expected to survive, and all four officers involved in that shooting were placed on administrative leave. The two incidents, both stemming from vehicle pursuits on the West Side, remain separate cases with no confirmed connection between them.
Investigators have not released the identities of the two men involved in the Alamo Ranch shooting. Officers had tried to pull over the car before the chase. The exact circumstances that led each man to be shot, beyond the police account relayed to News 4 San Antonio, have not been independently confirmed.
