Family frustrated by lack of details on deadly encounter outside their home

Home damaged by car involved in police pursuit

SAN ANTONIO – Fear has given way to frustration for a family who ended up in the middle of a deadly encounter involving San Antonio police and a driver on the city’s South Side.

Maricela Guevara said her daughter was ushered out of her home by officers late Monday night as they dealt with a man inside a car that had crashed outside her front door in the 200 block of Sims.

SAPD: Suspect fatally shot himself after leading pursuit in Bexar, Guadalupe counties

The impact of the crash left a garbage can destroyed and shattered a front window. (KSAT 12 News)

“The car knocked over the fence, it ran into the porch and the porch, I guess from the impact, broke the window to her bedroom,” she said.

Guevara had rushed over to help after getting a call from her daughter after 11 p.m.

The scene she found there was even more frightening than she had imagined, police positioned for trouble.

“They had their guns drawn at (the man in the car)and they were calling him by his name,” she said. “We have no information as far as what happened. We just know that when we passed by we saw someone in the vehicle and they were telling them to get out.”

As of Tuesday morning, the family still had no news about what happened and wondered if it was safe for anyone to return to the home.

Also among their questions was who was going to repair the damage.

KSAT 12 News made several inquiries to SAPD early Tuesday morning for information on the incident.

It wasn’t until nearly eleven hours after it happened, that police provided details.

A preliminary report says the man in the car was wanted in connection with several felonies.

When officers tried to stop him, he drove off, heading into Seguin and parts of Guadalupe County, then ultimately back to San Antonio.

Once he had returned to the city limits, the report said, SAPD began chasing him.

The reports says officers initiated a “pit maneuver,” causing the car to come to a stop in the yard of the home on Sims.

Police say they ordered the driver to get out of his car but he did not comply.

When officers later opened his car door, they realized the driver had shot and killed himself, the report says.

“It is very frustrating especially last night when we came by and they wouldn’t let us come over,” Guevara said. “My daughter was kind of in a panic mode.”

Guevara says she wishes officers would have told her family what was going on while it was happening.

Police did not offer an explanation for the apparent delay in releasing information about the incident.


About the Authors:

Katrina Webber joined KSAT 12 in December 2009. She reports for Good Morning San Antonio. Katrina was born and raised in Queens, NY, but after living in Gulf Coast states for the past decade, she feels right at home in Texas. It's not unusual to find her singing karaoke or leading a song with her church choir when she's not on-air.

Tim has been a photojournalist and video editor at KSAT since 1998. He came to San Antonio from Lubbock, where he worked in TV and earned his bachelor's degree in Electronic Media and Communication from Texas Tech University. Tim has won a handful of awards and has earned a master's in Strategic Communication and Innovation from Tech as well.