Violent crime gets San Antonio off to 'wild start' in 2019

The new year was only five hours old when Timothy Collins, a 42-year-old gas station clerk, was fatally shot in an armed robbery on San Antonio's Northwest Side. His killer remains at large.

And since that moment, there has been a near constant stream of violent crime across San Antonio and surrounding communities.

In the first two weeks of the year, the city has experienced five homicides. Officers fatally shot two suspects. Police have investigated the  fake kidnapping of King Jay Davila, who was later found buried in a black backpack in an empty West Side lot, and a shooting inside a luxury, gated community in far Northwest Bexar County that left a woman and two girls dead.

It's weighed heaviest on the San Antonio Police Department, whose jurisdiction covers most of the cases.

"We had plenty of help," said San Antonio Police Lt. Jesse Salame, "but I'd be lying if I told you that all of us weren't exhausted after that. Having worked those investigations before, you can go from a typical day but next thing you know you haven't been home in three or four days."

FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox

Such a seemingly inexplicable spike in crime isn't unheard of in law enforcement circles. Salame said there's an understanding that crime comes in waves, and trends, such as the decrease in violent crime last year, can be upended in the span of a few days.

"It was a pretty wild start to the new year, for us at least," he said. "We had seen such a decline in violent crime over the last couple years, especially last year, that we were sort of expecting something to happen. Crime is cyclical. There are certain things you can do, but no one expects a guy walking down a street firing off a gun during the daytime when everyone is out and about."

Salame was referring to Samuel Garcia, 39, who authorities said began indiscriminately shooting at people at about 8:45 a.m. Jan. 3 on the South Side near Harlandale High School. Officers in the area swarmed him and exchanged gunfire, killing him. One officer was injured in the shootout when a bullet pierced his front windshield, sending glass shards into his eye.

Less than 24 hours earlier, an officer fatally shot Arron Lambert at about 2:15 p.m. along an access road of Loop 410 near Interstate 35. Lambert was caught removing a license plate from a stolen Cadillac XTS and resisted arrest, officials said. During the struggle, Lambert snatched a stun gun from an officer and deployed it, police said. Another officer opened fire on Lambert as he appeared to reach for a knife in his pocket, authorities said.

For more on the two officer-involved shootings, go to our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com.

With those two investigations pending, a new massive case hit the department on Jan. 4, when Christopher Davila called police to report his infant son, King Jay, had been kidnapped. A full scale search began for the boy, over several days Davila's story fell apart. Police later arrested Davila and two of his family members for allegedly staging the kidnapping to cover up King Jay's death. The father led police to the boy's body just under a week after reporting the kidnapping.

RELATED: Court records expose how family allegedly covered up San Antonio baby's death with staged kidnapping

Salame said the King Jay investigation required the most manpower and resources to investigate, by far. Now that the body has been recovered, a more painstaking, but less frantic, task begins.

"The real hard part now is preparing all the reports and sending over the strongest possible case to the district attorney's office," he said. "We gotta go back and take a weeks worth of work, type it up and review it looking to see if there's any other evidence or any other individuals that had knowledge" of King Jay's death, he said.

To read more about how police unraveled the case, go to ExpressNews.com.

In addition to those investigations, the SAPD homicide unit opened five cases within the first two weeks of 2019. Hezekiah Jaeden Williams, 19, was shot in the head at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 5 in the 7800 block of Mesquite Farm. Scott Treiber was gunned down at about 12:50 a.m. Jan. 7 in the 8000 block of West Military Drive. And the body of Edward Beltran, 36, was found abandoned in a ditch at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 8 in the 10300 block of Moursund Boulevard. Those followed Collins' killing.

Finally, what was initially ruled an accidental death on Jan. 13 has since been found to be a homicide, according to Salame, though no information on the killing was immediately available.

Outside of San Antonio proper, Bexar County deputies continue to investigate the triple shooting at a luxurious gated community in far Northwest Bexar County that left 16-year-old Alexa Montez, an unidentified 10-year-old, and 37-year-old Nichol Olsen dead. The three victims were discovered at about 9 a.m. in their home in the 11300 block of Anaqua Springs in Northwest Bexar County.

RELATED: Death of woman in luxury San Antonio-area home ruled suicide, officials release IDs of 2 victims

The medical examiner has since ruled the girls' deaths homicides and said Olsen died by suicide. But Sheriff Javier Salazar on Monday said the investigation continues, despite the medical examiner's ruling.

"One of the greatest fears is that law enforcement is not going to cover all bases, because, well, it's been ruled a suicide and we're going to move onto the next case. And that is not what's occurring here," Salazar said. "I can assure the public that this case remains very much an open investigation."

Only two weeks into 2019, it's impossible to make any meaningful assessment of crime rates this year in comparison to previous years. But 2018 represented the continuation of a downward trend in violent crime in San Antonio, with homicides, robbery and aggravated assault totals expected to fall below those of 2017. That trend could continue in 2019, but, Salame noted, it's not off to a good start.

"Sometimes it seems like people know when we're busy, and that's when they want to go commit crimes, but we get it done. That's the bottom line," he said. "No matter what happens, we're prepared."

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | 
cdowns@mysa.com | @calebjdowns