SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio family is traumatized after an armed man with a violent criminal history tried to enter their far-north-side home. Arrest warrants show Christopher Rodriguez, 34, also threatened his parents at gunpoint that same day.
It all happened on Sept. 17, just north of Wilderness Oak in the Summerglen neighborhood.
“It was the worst feeling in the world,” said Lisa Sinn.
Sinn remembers getting a Ring notification on her phone at about 2 p.m.
“My [three] kids were home alone with a friend,” she said. “When I was going through the video to see what was going on, I saw that he was in the side and back of the yard. I knew something was wrong.”
Sinn’s home security system captured the man walking to the front door. He is visibly carrying a handgun, which he tries to tuck in his waistband after ringing the doorbell.
“I alerted my kids and I said, ‘Don’t answer the door and stay away from the windows,’” Sinn said.
Sinn says her children barricaded themselves in a closet while she frantically called for help.
Armed neighbors showed up and drove the man out of the gated community, according to Sinn. But he later returned.
Arrest affidavits state Christopher Rodriguez went to his parent’s home and threatened to “shoot up the house” if they didn’t let him in. His mother told police she feared for her life, so she ran out the back door. Rodriguez’s father said he gave his son water and $250, then drove him to his vehicle.
The suspect’s father also told police Rodriguez pointed a gun at his face as he exited the vehicle.
Deputies located and arrested Rodriguez the next day. He was charged with a felony count of firearm possession and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
'It's astonishing'
Court records show the 34-year-old has a lengthy criminal history dating back more than 15 years. Recent charges include sexual assault, assault involving strangulation, child endangerment and evading arrest.
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) told KENS 5 Rodriguez violated his parole back in May, so they issued a warrant for his arrest.
“It’s astonishing,” said Pct. 3 Commissioner Grant Moody. “You have these brazen criminals in the middle of the day brandishing a gun at your doorstep. It begs some serious questions about our criminal justice system and what needs to be fixed … because, clearly, we have some problems here.”
Moody represents the precinct where the incident happened.
“The system is broken,” he said. “We are talking about this incident here right now. But over the last few weeks, we have seen five, six officer-involved shootings. Those individuals have long wrap sheets.”
Moody says it’s not about finger-pointing.
“There’s talk of a task force to bring folks together to talk about this issue, but we need to move faster,” he said. “I don’t know whether it’s a question of implementing soft on crime policies, or whether those judges aren’t getting the information they need in order to make the right bail determinations, but we need to address it either way.”
Sinn says her family is still recovering from the incident.
“For a while, my kids slept in the same room together,” she said. “I don’t ever want to leave them home alone. It’s just hard to live in fear, even though we are trying not to live in fear.”
A TDCJ spokesperson said Rodriguez was “on an electronic monitoring system and was required to complete multiple visits with parole officers a month.”
On Friday, the Bexar County district attorney’s office released the following statement:
“Public safety is the number one priority of the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. No family should have to endure the nightmare that Lisa Sinn’s family experienced.
"Local residents must know and feel that they are safe in their homes. Criminals need to know that they will be arrested, prosecuted, and punished for threatening or otherwise attempting to violate the sanctity of another person’s home and harm a family.
"Christopher Rodriguez was prosecuted by my office in 2020 and sentenced to prison, but he was released early by the Texas prison system. At the time he showed up in front of the Sinn family home, Rodriguez already had active warrants for his arrest on more recent crimes, but he had not yet been arrested and brought to jail.
O"ur office’s review of Christopher Rodriguez’s cases will be expedited. Once the review of all evidence in each case is completed, the cases will be immediately presented to a grand jury. Our office will vigorously prosecute Christopher Rodriguez and work to see that he gets the punishment he deserves.”
>MORE LOCAL NEWS:
>TRENDING ON KENS 5 YOUTUBE: