Man tracks down and kills alleged car thief, gets shot himself in mall gunfire chaos

A Texas parking lot turned into a gunfight after a man tracked down his stolen vehicle Thursday afternoon to a nearby mall, where he shot and killed the alleged thief, who pulled out a gun himself and shot the owner.

The man and his passenger exited the South Park Mall in San Antonio around 1 p.m. to find their Ford truck missing.

The duo tracked down the vehicle to another parking lot at the mall to discover a male and female sitting in the truck.

“The owners of the stolen vehicle tracked the vehicle to the parking lot back here behind me. They showed up, they find the vehicle, there were two individuals, a male and a female in the vehicle,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at a press conference near the mall.

The man, whose name was not released, held the suspects at gunpoint and directed the driver to sit down by one of the tires while they waited for police.

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The thief then pulled out a handgun and shot the vehicle’s original owner, who returned fire and struck both suspects.

“At some point, the person who stole the vehicle and who is now being held at gunpoint by the owner of the vehicle produced a weapon from his waistband and shoots the owner of the vehicle,” McManus said.

The male thief was pronounced dead at the scene, according to San Antonio police.

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The vehicle’s owner and the woman were transported to a local hospital, where they were listed in stable and critical condition, respectively.

Police did not say how the truck was tracked down and described the shooting as a case of self-defense.

In photos from the scene, the female thief is seen being assisted by a police officer and another female with blood running down her leg, while the dead thief is lying face down in the parking lot.

Police say the owner of the vehicle had every right to look for his stolen property.

“The owner of the stolen vehicle certainly has the right to track down his stolen vehicle. Now we would prefer that they call the police before taking that into your own hands, but he did what he felt he needed to do,” McManus concluded.

The dead thief’s brother challenged the car owner’s supposed right to chase him down and kill him.

“The victim was my brother and there are two sides to every story,” Jose Garcia said, according to KENS 5. “Whether my brother was wrong or right, he had a gun pointed at him. I guess he took it upon himself to defend himself.”

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Garcia called the man who shot his brother a vigilante, adding that people should wait for the police.

“The guy who shot him is a vigilante, not a hero. A vehicle is not worth taking someone’s life, I don’t care what kind of car it is. You don’t take the law into your own hands,” Garcia added. “Now my mom, my family, we all have to suffer and just deal with it.”