Thread: TX-Gang members firing machine guns chase car on busy S.A. s

April 22, 2008, 4:54AM
Gang members firing machine guns chase car on busy S.A. street

By LOMI KRIEL
San Antonio Express-News

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SAN ANTONIO — A carload of gang members armed with machine guns chased after another vehicle on a busy Northeast Side street Monday, shooting wildly at a man in the other car before it eventually stopped and the man was shot several times in the head, authorities said.

The shooting, which prompted the lockdown of an elementary school and occurred near a high school, left the man seriously wounded. Bexar County sheriff's deputies said the man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he remained Monday night in serious condition.

Sgt. Chris Burchell said deputies arrested at least five men, all of whom are known gang members, in connection with the incident.

The shooting, which happened about 3:30 p.m. on Candlemeadow Drive near Foster Road, took place as the day was ending at nearby Wagner High School. Dozens of students, neighbors and other curious onlookers spilled onto the street as the deputies struggled to contain four crime scenes within about a four-block radius and separate witnesses from gawkers.

"It's organized chaos," Burchell said.

He said the shooting began when the victim, described only as being in his late teens, and the gang members argued. Some witnesses said it involved a car that had been stolen from one of the shooters' girlfriends, but Burchell was unable to confirm that.

To counter the attack, the victim and his friends pulled out BB guns, Burchell said, shooting at their rivals near Candlebluff and Candlemeadow drives. But their assailants, who "had some backup right around the corner," Burchell said, returned with machine guns, and shot at the victim and his two friends as they fled down Candlemeadow in a car.

The frantic chase stopped when the victim suddenly pulled to the side of the street, about 500 feet from Candlemeadow Elementary School. His assailants tried to pull him from the car and force him into theirs, but the man refused, Burchell said. So the men shot him several times in the head before fleeing, he said.

At the elementary school, Principal Susan Peery said a parent called her around 3:45 p.m. and told her about the incident. Though the regular school day already had ended, about 200 children still were participating in after-school activities.

After consulting with school police, Peery ordered a campuswide lockdown.

No children were injured, she said, but "it's scary, from the point of view that this is the closest a situation like this has come to us."

Burchell said it was fortunate that no one else was injured, adding, "It's crazy, driving around a neighborhood firing shots with a school right in the area."

Meanwhile, traffic on Foster Road quickly became congested, and deputies, who were helping move motorists through, noticed a gun on the floor of a man's car. They stopped him and found a Tec-9, a semi-automatic gun, in his car. He also was arrested, Burchell said, though his relationship with the other men was not immediately clear.

lkriel@express-news.net

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5719635.html

yes Felipe , they are Such good people . We are starting to see that as you said we would