Shooting at San Antontio Theatre

pbaj12 · #1 ● 12-31-2012, 01:24 PM

December 16, 2012, a 19-year-old man named Jesus Manuel Garcia showed up at the China Garden restaurant in San Antonio with a gun in an incident believed to have something to do with his former girlfriend (who worked at the restaurant but was not present at the time). After Garcia opened fire at the restaurant, a number of employees fled across a parking lot to an adjacent theater, where they were pursued by Garcia:

The employees inside the restaurant fled out a side door into the parking lot. Investigators said Garcia began chasing the employees and continued firing at them as they ran through the parking lot and into the Mayan Palace Theatre next door.

As Garcia was running through the parking lot, he shot the windshield of a San Antonio Police patrol car after an officer in the car shined a spotlight on him. The officer was not injured.

Garcia then ran inside the movie theater, where he continued his search for the restaurant employees. Movie-goers in the lobby, bathroom, and some theaters reported hearing multiple gunshots. The gunshots caused people inside the theater to panic.

"Everybody was just coming out of the side of the theater, running out the emergency exits. And everyone was screaming and running," a woman who was at the theater said.

Authorities said one man was shot by Garcia.

Garcia was finally stopped by an off-duty Bexar County Sheriff's Department officer who was working security at the theater. Officials said the officer, Sgt. Lisa Castellano, heard the gunfire inside the theater and ran towards the sound of the shooting to find out what was going on. Sgt. Castellano spotted Garcia coming out of a bathroom with his gun drawn and fired at him, shooting him four times.

Sgt. Castellano was awarded with a Medal of Valor on 19 December 2012 for her efforts in stopping the gunman at the scene of the shooting:

Sgt. Lisa Cuello Castellano was met with a standing ovation.

Bexar County Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz presented the 13-year veteran with the Medal of Valor for taking down a gunman inside a south-side movie theater.

According to police and deputies at the scene, 19-year-old Jesus Garcia ran into the Santikos Mayan Palace after firing several shots inside a nearby restaurant [and] in the parking lot.

Castellano, who was off duty, yelled for people inside the theater to get down on the ground. When Garcia came out of the restroom, Castellano ordered him to drop his weapon. When he refused, she shot him multiple times.

"I'm not going to lie; it was frightening," she said. "But, you know, the training kicks in. And thank you to the sheriff's office for all of the training that we're given."

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Jesus Manuel Garcia, 19, remained hospitalized Wednesday night, recovering from gunshot wounds. He's accused of opening fire inside the China Garden restaurant off Southwest Military Drive Sunday night and then firing several more shots inside the neighboring Mayan Palace movie theater. Investigators say Garcia did shoot and wound an innocent bystander.

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office says an off-duty sergeant working security at the Mayan Palace shot Garcia. Garcia's former employer and owner of the restaurant, Anthony Martinez, said Garcia had worked for the company for the past eight months, but at the Southwest Military Drive location for only four weeks. News 4 was told Garcia worked as a chef.

"He was a great kid," Martinez said. "Always a 'yes, sir' mentality."

Martinez also said Garcia was born in Houston, but went to Mexico to live with family. Then, he moved to San Antonio when he was 18-years-old and was currently living with a family friend.
"China Garden was his family," Martinez said.

Martinez said he doesn't know why Garcia, who had dreams of going to college, did what he did the night of the shooting. He also stated Garcia had been hanging out with a female employee from the restaurant, but it was nothing serious. The female employee allegedly recently told Garcia she didn't want to see him anymore.

"My gut feeling is that this isn't what really caused everything," Martinez added. "It might have triggered it, but I think this is an instance when an individual has some really big internal issues going on and this may have pushed it over the edge.

China Garden was closed for two days following the shooting, but it re-opened its doors Tuesday afternoon.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/sanantonio.asp
http://www.woai.com/content/news/new...kSAmoanAQ.cspx