SAN ANTONIO — Police say a taxi driver is struggling to recover from a knife attack in the heart of downtown overnight.
They say the call for help came in around 1:30 a.m. at the corner of North St. Mary’s and East Pecan Street.
Police say the 30-year-old man was attacked in the 100 block of Soledad, but drove his cab to a taxi stand across the street from the Greyhound Bus station, where he collapsed in the street.
Officers said he had several lacerations on his body and he wasn’t able to provide much information about what happened to him.
They said he was rushed to the hospital with a possible life threatening injury.
At a morning news conference, where Police Chief William McManus discussed the attack and a gun battle a few blocks away that killed an 80-year-old woman, the Chief said the incidents were not related but they share a common thread of random crime that can’t be predicted.
Speaking of the shooting, McManus said “If we have a pattern of offenses in an area, which this was not, we would typically put more patrols in the areas. A random act doesn't necessarily mean we will add more patrols to the area.”
On the topic of downtown safety in general, McManus said “We have adequate patrol downtown. We have bike patrol officers, in addition to the patrol officers that work the districts down here. In addition, there are covert officers who work where issues are happening. Park police are here. We have eyes and ears down here that are not necessarily police officers.”
McManus said, “I get the fact that tourism is a concern when there is a violent crime, especially in the downtown area. I get that. But again this was a random event. It's not as if there were a pattern of offenses here.”
Police said anyone with information about either attack should call the non-emergency number for the homicide division: 210-207-7635.
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