Police and media report that two people were shot late Sunday when a gunman opened fire at the Santikos Mayan Palace 14 movie theater Sunday night in San Antonio, sending panicked moviegoers rushing to exits and ducking for cover. It is also causing frazzled nerves of citizens nationwide who have yet to come to grips with the unimaginable shooting tragedy perpetrated at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and the theater shooting deaths in suburban Denver.
Jesus Manuel Garcia, 19, an employee at the China Garden restaurant, apparently became upset Sunday night after his girlfriend broke up with him, reports the San Antonio Express-News.
Here is an account of the story, according to mysanantonio.com, that took place after Garcia became heartbroken over being let go by his girlfriend:
He lashed out by sending her a message saying he planned to go to the restaurant and “shoot somebody,” said Bexar County sheriff’s Sgt. Raymond Pollard.
Pollard said the woman called to warn restaurant employees, but by the time she saw his message, Garcia was already outside the China Garden firing a Glock 23 at the front door about 9:25 p.m.
Garcia went inside, chased people out the back door, and followed one employee as he ran toward the theater, apparently because he was the easiest target, Pollard said.
“He was chasing him, shooting in the air and at other cars,” Pollard said.
He said that when a San Antonio police officer heard the gunshots and pulled into the theater’s parking lot, Garcia shot out his patrol car’s windshield.
Garcia then pursued the employee into the theater, firing more shots when he reached the lobby, Pollard said.
One of the shots struck a patron in the back, but the bullet did not strike any vital organs and the man was released from San Antonio Military Medical Center later Sunday night.
Bexar County sheriff’s Sgt. Lisa Castellano, who was working off-duty as a security guard at the Mayan Palace, chased the gunman toward the back of the theater. The 13-year department veteran cornered him after he ran into a men’s restroom, shooting him several times and taking his gun, Pollard said.
Armando Olguin, an off-duty San Antonio Independent School District police officer, restrained him using the sergeant’s handcuffs, Pollard said.
Garcia was rushed to SAMMC, where he was in stable condition in the intensive care unit Monday.
One witness, Tara Grace, was in line to get drinks when she heard the firecracker-like sounds ring out and instinctively ran into the bathroom and locked herself in a stall with five other moviegoers.
“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 co-worker before making his way to the theater, though Antu could not confirm a motive immediately.
The shooting immediately sparked fears of the bloodbath in July that killed 12 people and injured 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
Cassandra Castillo, whose son is a projectionist at the theater, was frantic as she waited outside the theater for her son.
“It brings back memories of the other theater shooting, and the elementary school shooting,” she said. “You only think the worst.”
