State trooper loses gear to car burglars; another targeted by shooter, DPS says

A chain of events outside a Northwest Side hotel early Friday morning left one Department of Public Safety trooper dodging bullets and a second one trying to recover property lost to a car burglar.

All of it is tied to one scene outside the Homewood Suites on Spectrum One, not far from Interstate 10 and Wurzbach Road.

San Antonio police say they initially received a call about the car burglary at the hotel around 5 a.m.

However, it later became a case for state investigators when someone fired shots at a state trooper.

In a written statement, DPS said someone broke into an unmarked unit belonging to a trooper who was staying at the hotel.

During that burglary, property belonging to that trooper was taken.

The statement said a second trooper who arrived on scene a short time later began following a suspicious car.

Someone in that car then fired shots at that second trooper, missing him.

Before long, the area from in front of the hotel to the highway access road had become part of the crime scene.

Officers searched for evidence and other clues to lead them to the shooter, who drove away.

Jorge Lopez arrived for work at a nearby car rental agency about two hours after the trouble began.

He says he found out from a coworker that police had an active investigation going on.

“He came around and they had the scene blocked off,” Lopez said. “And then we’re like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’”

At one point, police shut down a lane of the highway access road as well as the entrances to the strip mall where Lopez works.

He worried the closure could affect business on an especially busy day.

“Pretty interesting for sure,” he said. “Especially going into the Hallo-weekend, we have quite a bit of reservations.”

Lopez said while hearing about the gunshots came as a surprise, the reported car burglaries are commonplace.

“Honestly, we have had our cars broken into, especially the ones parked in the back of the hotel parking lot,” he said.

Investigators searched the area for the shooter but did not find that person right away.

The statement from the DPS stressed that the trooper targeted by the shooter did not fire back.

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