SAN ANTONIO — Three people are dead after two separate shootings happening late Monday night into Tuesday morning.
One of those killed, a 16-year-old girl, was shot at an apartment complex off Ingram Road. Police say she was taken to the hospital where she later died from her injuries.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus expressed frustration Tuesday morning after he said detectives are working to investigate the recent rash of shootings across the city. But many of those arrested in the past few years, have been arrested before, he said, and subsequently released from jail.
“Sixty percent of the people that we have arrested in the past few years – three (years), I believe it is – we've arrested before. We've got people that we're arresting and re-arresting and re-arresting again,” said McManus. “So, to say that SAPD is not doing their job, that's not true.”
McManus said the bonds for violent crimes should be set higher, but instead criminals are back on the streets and representing a danger to the public.
Released just hours later
The city’s top officer also shared his frustration about a recent case where a 19-year-old man was arrested after threatening a mass shooting.
Thanks to a witness, police arrested the Rodolfo Valdivia Aceves before he could act. But just a few hours after the arrest, Aceves posted bond and was released from jail.
“I just don't understand why it's OK for this guy to be on the street,” McManus said in an exclusive interview with KENS 5 on Tuesday. “Especially in the wake of Uvalde, this individual being out on the street, regardless of what bond conditions he may have, is dangerous to the public.”
According to an arrest affidavit, Aceves was working as a sub-contractor at an Amazon warehouse in southeast San Antonio, when he told a coworker he was planning on carrying out a mass shooting.
The first incident happened on June 24, when Aceves was outside during a fire drill at the facility with a coworker who told police what happened.
Th affidavit reads, “The witness was standing next to the defendant (Aceves) when the defendant stated to the witness that it would be a good idea to pull the fire alarm and have all employees exit the building and commit a mass shooting.”
The document goes on to explain that Aceves told the witness “he will be doing it an he would commit a mass shooting.”
The coworker “feared retaliation” and didn’t tell her managers at work what happened, but then she changed her mind, saying she felt Aceves was capable of committing a mass shooting.
The affidavit outlines another incident when the witness gave Aceves a ride home from work. She told police that before she dropped him off, they stopped to pickup her children from school.
Aceves told the witness that he would now know what school to go to and shoot up the school. He also told the witness that the 18-year-old gunman in the Uvalde school shooting was his "idol."
“With all the of the mass shootings, the active shooter events that have happened just recently, and we've got a guy who's threatening to do it and he's back out on the street,” said McManus. “I hate to keep using the word, but it's frustrating to see that happen.”
Aceves was arrested on June 27, the very next day after witness reported the incidents to police. Officers received a search warrant and found guns at Aceves’ Universal City home.
On the same day he was arrested, Aceves was out of jail, again, after he posted bail set at $50,000.
Who sets bond amounts?
KENS 5 reached out to Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales to ask how the bail amount was determined.
“It's important for the public to understand that tat the district attorney's office does not have the ultimate control as to where a bond is set or the amount that is set. We make bond recommendations,” Gonzales said.
He said after his prosecutors recommend a bond, it’s up to the magistrate judge to make the final call.
Gonzales said, in this case, his prosecutors recommended a higher bond of $65,000.
“Especially with everything that's happened with Uvalde, we're a lot more aware of the potential for harm. That's why the recommendation was higher than normal,” said Gonzales. “But even at the amount that we recommended, it didn't stay there. It was reduced.”
Gonzales said every person arrested for a crime has the ability to bail out, with the exception of those charged with capital murder.
“But the key is: What bond is the correct amount?” said McManus. “When you have someone who is a danger to the public, that bond should be high, in my opinion.”
Those dangers extend not only to the public, McManus said, but to those close to Aveces, including the witness who reported him.
“They have every right to be afraid, because it's a reality that retaliation is a very likely possibility,” he said.
'There doesn't need to be another word said'
Gonzales said he depends on law enforcement to alert prosecutors about the severity of cases before a recommendation for bond is handed over to the magistrate judge.
In this case, however, the district attorney says that did not happen.
“If law enforcement is not telling us, ‘This is a guy that knows where these people live, we believe he's got every ability to carry out his threat, we think that the bond should be a lot higher than the normal'... apparently, that didn't happen here,” said Gonzales. “All she had was the affidavit that she was reviewing to make the recommendation.”
But McManus contends that communication did happen, via the reports made by officers.
“The clear communication is right there in the affidavit, right there in the affidavit. There doesn't need to be another word said,” the chief said.
In the affidavit, the witness tells police multiple times that she’s afraid of Aceves and potential retaliation, adding the man accused of planning a school shooting knows where her daughter goes to school.
More details revealed in the affidavit come from Aceves’ father, who told police his son had a history of mental illness, and twice had been placed in a mental health facility.
The father also shared with police that his family was scared after his son had purchased an AR platform rifle, according to the affidavit.
“I think it's unconscionable that he's on the street right now after making those kinds of threats in the aftermath of Uvalde and other mass shootings that have happened most recently,” said McManus.
“What can be done? High enough bond to keep people in jail. Yeah, for starters,” the chief added.
Gonzales said he supports the bail amount his prosecutors recommended.
“I'm comfortable that the recommendation that this prosecutor set the bond where she set it was based on the information that she had," he said. "And she wasn't alerted that there was any need to set it any higher."