A 16-year-old in San Antonio, Texas, was shot and killed at about 2:30 in the morning when attempting to steal a car from an apartment complex. The incident occurred on Monday, March 11 in the Northwest Side area of San Antonio.
According to local media outlet KSAT, the incident occurred at an apartment complex called the Reserve San Antonio, which is located in the 13900 block of Babcock Road area. KSAT adds that the apartment complex is located near the West Hausman Road and UTSA Boulevard parts of San Antonio.
Reporting on the shooting incident, KSAT reports that the San Antonio Police Department found that the owner of the car heard glass break outside of his apartment in the early hours of the morning. When he left his apartment to investigate what was going on and led to the broken glass, he allegedly found the 16-year-old sitting in his car and trying to steal it.
That discovery, police said, led to a shooting. Upon going to investigate and finding the teen still sitting in his car and trying to steal it from the apartment complex, the car’s owner drew his firearm and opened fire on the suspected car thief. He fired only one round from the firearm but it was well-aimed and struck the alleged car thief in the chest. The car owner then called the police to report the shooting.
The car owner, speaking to police, said that he fired because he was both protecting his property from theft and believed that the suspect on whom he fired was armed, making it a self-defense shooting. The alleged car thief died at the scene from the gunshot wound.
According to the San Antonio Police Department, the investigation into the shooting is currently ongoing. The police department did not announce whether the car owner would face any charges for the shooting, or if the teen had a weapon on him when stealing the car. When called by the car owner, the San Antonio Police Department, San Antonio Fire Department, and EMS all responded.
Under Penal Code § 9.31, Texas’ self-defense law, self-defense is justified in circumstances where the person using deadly force uses it to a degree that they reasonably believe is immediately necessary to protect against the other person’s use of or attempted use of unlawful force. Verbal provocation is not a satisfactory reason for the use of force.
Deadly force is “presumed to be reasonable if the actor: (1) knew or had reason to believe that the person against whom the force was used: (A) unlawfully and with force entered, or was attempting to enter unlawfully and with force, the actor’s occupied habitation, vehicle, or place of business or employment; (B) unlawfully and with force removed, or was attempting to remove unlawfully and with force, the actor from the actor’s habitation, vehicle, or place of business or employment; or (C) was committing or attempting to commit aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated robbery; (2) did not provoke the person against whom the force was used; and (3) was not otherwise engaged in criminal activity, other than a Class C misdemeanor that is a violation of a law or ordinance regulating traffic at the time the force was used.“