The 9200 block of Saddle Trail in Stagecoach Hills off Boerne Stage Road in northwest Bexar County remained closed to all but local residents Thursday night after a standoff took place between law enforcement and a man who held them off for more than 24 hours by firing at them.
A spokesman with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said that Texas Department of Public Safety investigators needed more time to process the location where an 84-year-old woman was found dead after a standoff with a gunman.
The medical examiner has not released the name of the woman, saying that they only have a tentative identification. No information about her cause of death has been released either.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said that the woman had obvious trauma but he did not say how long she had been deceased.
A BCSO spokesman confirmed that 60-year-old Fernando Macias was arrested and charged in connection with the lengthy confrontation.
He has been booked by proxy on one count of attempted capital murder of a police officer.
As of late Thursday, he was still listed as a patient at University Hospital, where the sheriff said he was being treated for undisclosed injuries suffered during the standoff.
Bond for Macias was set at $150,000.
Neighbors who live just across a steep valley from the besieged home say that they will never forget watching the shootout between the armed man and the DPS SWAT team.
The incident started when a BCSO mental health team went to the location to serve a mental health warrant and check on the welfare of Macias and his elderly mother, who was said to be suffering from a number of health complications.
Neighbor Bennie Hopper said that he watched and listened to the tense situation for hours as negotiators tried to talk the suspect into surrendering peacefully.
"They were calling him by name, ‘Fernando. Fernando, please think of your mom. Come outside. Lay down,’" Hopper recalled.
Hopper also said that the man was constantly on the move inside and outside the house, occasionally pausing to fire on officers.
"The curtains were drawn and closed and then he opened them and he would be standing there,” Hopper said, adding that when he saw DPS armored vehicles arrive across the valley, he knew the day-long standoff was about to change.
"I said, ‘They are bringing the big guns in now,’” Hopper described.
Sitting safely in his yard several hundred yards away, he watched the tactical moves with binoculars.
“It got where they were really shooting back and forth,” Hopper said. “Lots of gunfire."
Sheriff Salazar said that so many shots were fired during the exchange that it took several hours to process the complicated scene.
Hopper praised the meticulous work of all the law enforcement officers who tried for a peaceful resolution for a full day.
"I can't say enough about our sheriff and the way everything was handled out here,” Hopper said.
The area should be reopened to the public on Friday.