SAN ANTONIO — A man was shot and killed while taking his trash out early Tuesday morning, according to the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD).
It happened in the 12400 block of Starcrest Drive near Bitters Road on the Northeast side.
Investigators believe 58-year-old Harold Woodrow Thomas II, slipped on a patch of muddy grass and accidentally shot himself in the torso.
A young mother, who didn’t want to be publicly identified, told KENS 5 something “doesn’t add up.” The woman lives just a few feet from where the man died and was one of the first people on scene.
“My dad went to work around 6 a.m. and my mom heard people [behind the building] arguing,” the woman said. “That’s when she heard the gunshot. The guy was yelling, ‘Help me!’ The guy came by the fence with the trash and that’s when he fell. I was looking through the window the whole time. He fell and he was still yelling, ‘Help me!'"
According to the witness, the man slid down a hill in front of her home and came to a stop near the apartment dumpster.
The woman told KENS 5 her brother rushed outside and began performing CPR on the victim.
“The guy told my brother to call the fire department,” she said. “That’s what we did. When the fire department got here, he was already purple. I had turned on the flashlight to see if he was okay and there was blood on his shirt. It was traumatizing.”
As police continue to investigate what happened, the neighbor is now considering moving.
“It’s scary because I bring my daughter out and she is barely one,” she said. “We are probably going to move because it was supposed to be safe here.”