SAN ANTONIO — The young mother of two says she was asleep on her couch a few minutes before 2 a.m. when bullets shattered her windows, patio doors and all sense of safety.
Genesis said one of the first flying slugs went through glass, crossed the room, bounced off a wall and landed next to her on the couch.
She said instinct kicked in and she ran to make sure her two kids were still alive.
"It was very terrifying because I have two small children, who are 2 and 1-year-old, and I ran into their room to make sure they were fine," Genesis said.
The terror, she said, lasted hours as more and more potentially deadly bullets ripped through her apartment, which was very near the doorway of a man who police said ended up firing more than 100 rounds at officers responding to calls for a shooting on Ray Bon early Friday morning.
Police said the incident ended hours later with the gunman dead by his own hand after he killed his own roommate.
More than 24 hours after the incident, the Medical Examiner has yet to release the name of either of them.
Genesis said being new to the area, having moved in just a few weeks ago, she was familiar with the man who also tore her life apart.
"He looked calm. He had a cane. I thought he was a calm person. I never imagined this going on," Genesis said of the man she would see walking to his car every so often.
Genesis said when the shooting first started nearby, she wondered if she had moved into a bad area.
"We just moved in here not long ago. We just thought maybe it's a rough neighborhood," Genesis said, adding "After that I kept hearing more and more gunshots. It kept hitting. Some of them hit my front door and the other one hit my front glass window. It was awful. I was fearing for my life and for my kid's safety."
Calling for help, she said, didn't make it any better.
"I called 911 and they told me 'Oh yeah, you're calling about the shooting' and I was like 'Yeah - but they're shooting in my house,' and they were like 'Just stay away from windows' and that's all the information they gave me," Genesis said.
Genesis said the feeling of being left to fend for themselves was terrible, as she only saw one police vehicle in the area for hours.
"They didn't tell me like anything that was going on or if I should be doing something. If I could help myself, you know, like where to hide or something like that and they didn't come until everything was over," Genesis said.
"Then like after two hours they came finally to my door and I told them why did it take them so long to come because I was already fearing like somebody was going to shoot more into my apartment," Genesis said.
Hours after the attack, Genesis said she remained in shock "Every time when we tried to get close to a window to see what was happening, it was more gunshots, more gunshots, and it was a lot of gunshots."
She said she spent the morning trapped inside her apartment, cleaning up shattered glass.
"We couldn't leave our apartment until about 9 in the morning. We were stuck here. There was no way out. Even if we wanted to leave to go to our family's house, they were not allowing us to leave," Genesis said, adding the apartment complex management added to her stress.
"I tried to contact the apartment complex but they didn't pick up the phone, which makes it worse because I would think since this happened they would come and check if we are okay, if my kids are okay," Genesis said.
Property records at the Bexar Appraisal District indicate the Cottage Creek Apartment complex is owned by Opportunity Housing, formerly the San Antonio Housing Authority.
KENS 5 reached out for a comment on the incident, but Genesis said hours after the fact, someone from the complex finally reached out to help.
With regard to the investigation into the incident, police said they knew of no motive for the attack, which involved a lone gunman shooting at police with both a rifle and a pistol.
Police Chief William McManus said the first arriving patrol vehicle took about 40 shots as the officer hid behind a garbage container for shelter.
"When the other cars showed up, he continued to fire at them," McManus said of the incident that began when the gunman called someone he knew and told that person that he had just killed his roommate. McManus said that person then called police.
With regard to the safety of nearby residents, McManus said officers did what they could while bullets were flying.
"They evacuated what they were able to evacuate around that building but he was shooting everywhere. As a matter of fact he probably fired, in a 20 minute period, probably over 100 rounds," McManus said.