The wee hours of Sunday morning were a wild time across America over the weekend, as that’s when many of the late-night Saturday Halloween parties were winding down after much drinking and merrymaking. In San Antonio, Texas, however, the same time was made all the crazier by an alleged burglar’s poor firearm handling skills.
According to the local police department, officers from the San Antonio Police Department were dispatched to the location of a shooting in progress call at about 2 a.m. on Sunday morning. Once there, they found a man with a gunshot wound to his leg.
That wound, however, is not one that they believe was inflicted by an armed citizen or another alleged criminal. Rather, the police believe that the gunshot wound victim suffered his injury when he accidentally shot himself in the leg while trying to steal cars on the northwest side of San Antonio.
KENS5, reporting on the matter and what police discovered, provided, “According to police, they received a call about two men who were trying to break into vehicles in the area. The call was upgraded to a shooting in progress as officers responded. When they got to the location, they found the two men in the street, and one had a gunshot wound to his leg. Police believe that he accidentally shot himself. He was taken to University Hospital in stable condition.”
San Antonio Police Department officers detained the second man at the scene while they investigate the shooting and what activities were occurring when it happened. According to them, there were no other injuries reported in connection with the incident, and they are searching the area for cars broken into.
Earlier in the night, the department had posted safety tips for Halloween weekend on Facebook. One of those tips was “SEE AND BE SEEN” “BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS WEAR HIGH VISIBILTY ITEMS SUCH AS GLOW STICKS, BLINKING LIGHTS, AND REFLECTIVE ATTIRE CARRY A FLASHLIGHT AND DO NOT TRICK OR TREAT ALONE.”
The second tip was, “BE AWARE” “WATCH FOR TRAFFIC. LOOK FOR VEHICLES EXITING AND ENTERING DRIVEWAYS PAY ATTENTION TO VEHICLES TRAVELING IN ALL DIRECTIONS BE WATCHFUL EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT CROSSING THE STREET BE CONSCIOUS OF PEOPLE AROUND YOU.”
The third was, “PLAN.” “PLAN YOUR TRICK OR TREATING ROUTE IN ADVANCE OBSERVE CROSSWALKS AND PLAN ROUTES ACCORDINGLY ASSURE ALL MEMBERS OF YOUR GROUP KNOW THE PLAN.”
Apparently, the department should also have included “observe all the rules of gun safety and treat every firearm as loaded so that you do not shoot yourself in the limb during the attempted commission of a burglary or robbery and get the police called on you for doing so.” But, then again, that would have left the alleged burglar uncaught instead of in police custody, so perhaps a few residents of San Antonio have the alleged burglar’s lack of firearm handling skills to thank for their cars being safe instead of pilfered.
