SAN ANTONIO — It was quiet on the 500 block of Bailey Avenue Friday, where neighbors were still coming to grips with the fallout from Thursday’s violent attack in which three men were shot multiple times.
In an area where many of the houses and the neighbors have been around for decades, most people did not want to be seen talking about the attack, which happened at 4:30 in the afternoon when plenty of neighbors were visiting with each other in yards and driveways.
Privately, several people said they are concerned for their safety even though the police chief called the incident a targeted attack in which the shooters were after specific victims.
Police said the victims are 18-year-old Nathan Saenz, 20-year-old Anthony Cantu and 28-year-old John Caballero. All three remain hospitalized; Saenz and Caballero are both in fair condition, while an update on Cantu was not available.
The person who owns the home where the drive-by attack happened lives two houses away. Three security cameras were watching from every angle, but those who answered the door at the house when KENS 5 dropped by would not talk about the incident, citing safety concerns.
Neighbors said the owner is related to the people who live in the targeted home.
People who spoke anonymously called Highland Park an old-school kind of neighborhood, where people still sit on their porches in the evening, watching what goes on.
Abel Gonzales, who has lived in the home he inherited from his parents for 22 years, said he does not think that will change.
"The way I was raised by my father, who was a military man, he said, 'You need to fight evil.'" Gonzales said. "You are not to live in fear, because if I would be afraid to walk out this door, he said, 'You might as well bury yourself in a seven-foot grave.'
"Life goes on and we have to be brave. We have to be strong and careful and fight it."
Another woman said she finds comfort in the way neighbors look out for one another and for their homes. Still, she said she had a sleepless night Thursday, worrying about the possibility the gunmen might return.
She said many people were standing outside when the shooting started and that neighbors immediately came to the aid of the injured. One man, she said, even took off his shirt to use as a tourniquet for a wounded man's leg, while another woman ran inside her home and came back with towels to stop the bleeding of other victims.
There are plenty of surveillance cameras up and down the block on Bailey. Police have not said whether the attack was caught on camera, but they did say the vehicle driven by the shooters was white and had four doors.
The search for the shooting suspects continues.