San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
2 wounded after shots fired in Alamo Plaza area
A 17-year-old man was walking along Alamo Street with his friends early Saturday morning when he heard gunshots.
One grazed the right side of his head, a minor wound. The man and his friends sought help in the
Menger Hotel, said the hotel’s general manager, Garvin O’Neil, recounting what he saw and heard when gunfire disrupted the heart of San Antonio’s tourist district.
The hotel’s security team called police and emergency medical services. The young man’s wound was treated at the hotel while security manned the entrances, verifying that those entering were guests.
O’Neil called the scene in the lobby “calm and orderly” as police interviewed witnesses and EMS tended to the young man.
Officers searched Alamo Plaza and the surrounding area and called in a police helicopter to look for vehicles.
The Police Department said it received multiple reports of gunshots downtown just before 2 a.m.
The shooting also injured a 23year-old woman in both legs. She was a passenger in a vehicle with her 22-year-old boyfriend, police said.
The woman was transported to Brooke Army Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The man told police that two men had shot at him and his girlfriend, but police said he was upset and not very cooperative.
Officials are investigating whether multiple gunmen were
involved in the incident. Police said tourists were not shot in the gunfire.
The Police Department said “numerous shell casings” were recovered in front of Pat O’Brien’s barrestaurant and Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks and at the intersection of Houston and Alamo, at the northwest end of the plaza, a block from the historic Emily Morgan Hotel.
Two people matching descriptions provided by the 22-year-old man were spotted on foot near College and St. Mary’s and were detained for questioning, police said.
One of the them, identified as Nikolas Holland, 21, had a gun in his waistband, police said.
Police discovered he had an outstanding warrant for possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana. They charged him with unlawfully carrying a weapon. He is being held in the Bexar County Jail on $6,400 bail, according to magistrate records.
The second man, identified in the report only as a 27-year-old, was released.
Alamo Plaza attracts hundreds of San Antonians and tourists each day, and Saturday afternoon was no different. With no police tape, pedestrians had no clue about the previous night’s incident.
Richard Oliver, director of partner and community
relations for Visit San Antonio, the city’s tourism-marketing arm, said visitors could be confident that San Antonio is a safe destination.
“The city works overtime to protect them with the same care it provides its own residents,” Oliver said in a statement.