John Salinas, 19, is accused of back-to-back shootings that nearly killed one homeowner and narrowly missed another.
Salinas is facing several charges, including two counts of aggravated robbery, stemming from a string of car thefts and burglaries on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27.
“It went so fast, I didn’t really know what happened,” said Derek Bosquez.
Bosquez told KENS 5 he was waiting for a package delivery at his home on Briarwick Street in the early hours of Feb. 26.
“I had a package arriving from Amazon between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.,” said Bosquez. “So, I was watching my cameras seeing what was going on. I saw a car come up in front of my yard and I thought, ‘Okay, this is Amazon.’ I noticed he didn’t go to my front door, he kind of went to the other direction and I found that suspicious. Then, I saw him breaking into [my mom’s] car.”
Bosquez says he went outside to yell at the burglar, and that’s when the man grabbed a gun and started shooting at him.
“He hit the garage, one of the bullets hit the gas tank of my truck and another one went straight between my legs,” he said. “It didn’t register until a few seconds after that, ‘Man, they are shooting at me!’ He fired six times.”
About 24 hours later, Salinas shot at another homeowner on Creager Canyon, according to the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD).
Christopher Santiago says he received a Ring alert showing someone rifling through his fiancée’s car, so he went outside to investigate. That’s when the burglar shot him in the abdomen.
“He was already in his vehicle,” said Santiago. “He had no reason to turn back and shoot me.”
Santiago was rushed into emergency surgery, and spent more than a week in the hospital.
“They removed four pieces of my intestine, but one piece of shrapnel is still lodged near my spine,” said Santiago. “Three fragments went into the stomach, two in the groin, one on the hip, and one fragment hit me in the throat but didn’t puncture. I still have an open wound on my side that’s actually still bleeding. It’s drastically changed my life. I can’t work, I can barely sit up that long.”
At just 36, Santiago says he will need an oxygen tank.
Investigators say they tracked the stolen vehicles used in the burglaries to Salinas. Detectives say they also matched the shell casings from both crime scenes to Salinas’s gun.
Arrest documents state Salinas bragged about the second shooting, which seriously injured Santiago.
“The fact that I had to get shot in order for something to get done is absolutely ridiculous,” said Santiago.
Santiago is calling on local law enforcement to step up neighborhood patrols.
“The police are going to end up having to deal with fatalities on both sides of the law,” he said. “They are going to have criminal fatalities, they are going to have to deal with victims who don’t have firearms in their homes.”
As for Santiago, he says he will face the suspected shooter in court. He is working on a victim impact statement.
“I hope they sentence him to the maximum they possibly can,” said Santiago. “Because if he didn’t care enough about my life, if he didn’t care enough about the guy’s life who he shot at before me, why should he be free on the street?”
A spokesperson for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) released the following statement:
“The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to keeping Bexar County residents and their property safe. In order to maintain a tactical advantage, we cannot discuss specifics regarding ongoing crime suppression initiatives. Bexar County residents can be assured that we are diligently working to apprehend dangerous and violent suspects.
Additionally, we want to remind the community to practice the 9 p.m. routine: Remove all valuables from your vehicle, turn on residential exterior lighting, but above all else - lock your vehicle.”
SAPD investigated the shootings. The department did not immediately respond to our request for comment.