By Brian Chasnoff
San Antonio Express-News
SAN ANTONIO, Tex. — The man’s first mistake Sunday was fleeing the scene of an accident, police said.
From there, he committed a succession of errors that included pointing a loaded rifle at police, resulting in a hail of gunfire from four officers, authorities said.
Struck once in the hip and once in the shoulder, Leon Pedroza, who turned 43 on Sunday, was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, where he was in serious condition Sunday afternoon.
He was charged with attempted capital murder, and his bond was set at $150,000.
The incident marked the fourth San Antonio Police Department officer-involved shooting in just under five weeks.
“It’s unfortunate that police are put in situations where they’re required to use deadly force because someone levels a weapon at them,” Police Chief William McManus said at the scene, “leaving officers no choice as to what the response would be.”
The events that led up to the shooting began around 2:30 a.m. when a man crashed his Lincoln Town Car into a utility pole at Randolph Boulevard and North Weidner Road, McManus said. He fled on foot and was gone when officers arrived.
The man, an employee at a used-car dealership, called a colleague at Jubilee Motors in the 11300 block of North Interstate 35 near the O’Connor Road exit. He arrived there soon after and entered the business, where he kept a bolt-action rifle, said police spokesman Joe Rios.
Around 6:30 a.m., police received a call from someone at the dealership concerned about an intoxicated man armed with a rifle. On arrival, Officer James Burnette, a 13-year member of the Police Department, saw a man in the parking lot of the business carrying a rifle case, Rios said.
Police believe the man is the one who wrecked the Lincoln, McManus said.
Gripping his Taser, Burnette yelled for the man to drop the case. Instead, the man pulled the rifle from it and ducked behind a pickup parked along the access road in front of the business, police said.
Burnette abandoned the Taser, drew his handgun and ordered the man to drop the weapon. As three more officers arrived, the man chambered a live round into the rifle and began aiming it at Burnette, Rios said.
A witness corroborated the officers’ claim that the suspect leveled his rifle at Burnette, according to police.
Burnette and the other officers — 11-year member Roman De Leon, six-year member Michael Fletcher and five-year member Michael Blanquiz — fired at the suspect simultaneously out of fear for their lives, according to police.
Police remained on the scene Sunday afternoon, blocking access to Jubilee Motors. Reached by phone, an employee there refused to discuss the incident, saying she had been instructed not to comment.
On April 10 police shot and killed a man they said robbed a bank and pointed a handgun at an officer. Three days earlier, an officer had fired into a moving vehicle that was lurching toward him, police said; the driver was struck in the thigh.
On March 23, officers shot and killed a man they said pointed a handgun at them after robbing a Blockbuster store.
Copyright 2007 San Antonio Express-News