SAN ANTONIO — On Father's Day 2022, a gunman interrupted a family barbecue and holiday celebration on the southwest side of San Antonio, leaving two dead.
Fourteen months later, police say someone drove up on a mother and her 17-year-old son sitting in their garage just a mile away, firing at least 10 shots at them. The teen died a week later.
Now police say the same man, 19-year-old Nathan Martinez, pulled the trigger in both incidents. He was arrested Wednesday on several charges, including murder, aggravated assault and drug possession.
“We are very relieved to get this individual – who honestly has no regard for human life – off the streets," said Washington Moscoso, a sergeant with the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD).
Elise Gomez-Ramirez shares that same feeling of relief. She says her son, Julian Robledo, was shot in front of her. Gomez-Ramirez cradled his blood-soaked body and waited for EMS to arrive, she told KENS 5.
"I feel a bit of joy that they arrested him, but sad because I won’t have my son with me," Gomez-Ramirez said, in an interview conducted in Spanish. "It’s sad having seen him there after they shot my son.”
Moscoso said ballistic evidence gathered from a separate shooting Martinez was apparently involved with matched evidence taken by detectives on August 15, when he allegedly shot the mother and her son along the 2800 block of Mosscircle Drive, along with the family dog. He was out on probation at the time following an earlier arrest during a traffic stop, when authorities say he was found with drugs and a machine gun.
Detectives also searched Martinez's social media accounts, where Moscoso said he "bragged about taking down a rival gang member" following the Mosscircle drive-by. Police say Martinez used a switch in that shooting, essentially turning the handgun he's accused of using "into an automatic weapon."
Seven people in all were shot in last year's Father's Day shooting, which happened in the area of State Highway 16 and I-35. Two died from their injuries.
Authorities didn't say how they ultimately connected Martinez back to that deadly 2022 shooting.
Gomez-Ramirez says the suspect's arrest is not only important for her family; she believes it will keep others from experiencing the same loss.
"Now he can’t be on the streets anymore, killing people and leaving families grieving and suffering," she said. "They came... to take away his life right in front of me. That’s what really hurts my heart. I turned around to see my son, and he was dead.”
The mourning mother told KENS 5 she still doesn't know why her son was slaughtered.
Robledo became a father just before the attack. His child is now 5 months old. Gomez-Ramirez hopes her son's killer receives the same life sentence her family has been handed.
Martinez was charged with capital murder of multiple persons, unlawfully carrying weapons, possession of a machine gun and drug possession. Investigators believe the attacks were gang-related. Martinez is being held without bond.
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