A recent breakup set off a shooting spree that ended with the suspect wounding a man at the Santikos Mayan Palace 14 movie theater Sunday night before being shot by an off-duty deputy, authorities said. Police are shown questioning men outside the theater Sunday night.. Jesus Manuel Garcia, 19, an employee at a nearby China Garden restaurant, apparently became upset Sunday night after his girlfriend broke up with him. Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, San Antonio Express-News / San Antonio Express-News
Two people were wounded late Sunday when gunfire erupted at a local movie theater, sending panicked moviegoers rushing to exits and ducking for cover, police and witnesses said.
A lone suspect was in custody after being wounded by an unidentified law enforcement officer, a Bexar County Sheriff's Office spokesman said.
Conditions of the two people wounded were not immediately released, nor was it disclosed where they were when they were wounded, or the type of gun that was used.
Related Link: Officials: Breakup sparked Santikos shooting
Witnesses said numerous shots were fired inside and outside the Santikos Mayan Palace 14 theater complex on Southwest Military Drive around 9:25 p.m., setting off the scramble to safety before police and EMS arrived. The complex was evacuated and sealed off for several hours.
Detective Louis Antu, spokesman for the Bexar County Sherriff's Office, said the shooting began at a nearby China Garden and “carried on into the theater.”
At one point, the suspect fired at a San Antonio Police Department patrol car, Antu said.
“He was shooting at a marked unit,” Antu said. “He knows he was shooting at an officer so that's (an) automatic (charge of) attempted capital murder.”
After the suspect reached the theater, an off duty Bexar County Sheriff officer who was working at the theater shot at him and possibly struck him, Antu said.
“She took all appropriate action to keep everyone safe in the movie theater,” Antu said.
Tara Grace, who was getting a drink from the concession stand when the shooting began, ran into the bathroom and locked herself in a stall with five other patrons to avoid the mayhem.
“We thought we were going to die,” she said.
A person at the scene, an employee from a different location of the restaurant, said the gunman initially may have targeted a coworker before making his way to the theater, though Antu could not confirm a motive immediately.
The shooting immediately sparked fears of a mass slaying like the one in July that killed 12 people and injured 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
Cassandra Castillo, waited anxiously outside the theater for her son, a projectionist at the theater.
“It brings back memories of the other theater shooting, and the elementary school shooting,” she said. “You only think the worst.”
hoconnor@express-news.net
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