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Gunfight between cars on east side Saturday night leaves neighbors on edge

Eyewitnesses say two cars exchanged over 30 shots, and though no injuries were reported, residents of J Street are shaken up.

SAN ANTONIO — Some east side neighbors said they could not believe what they were hearing overnight Saturday when a car-to-car running gun battle blasted out of J Street Park around midnight.

San Antonio Police said they found more than 30 spent shell casings littering the street.

While investigators believe nobody was hit by the flying bullets, the people who live nearby said they have been hit - by a wave of fear.

One woman, who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation, said she came to the area near J Street and Amerson when she heard reports of gunfire near her mother’s home. The worried daughter said when she turned the last corner, she was shocked by what she saw.

"We get here and we turn the corner and we witness the two cars shooting at each other right in the middle of the street, so we move and let them go on and then we heard about 30 or 40 more rounds down Pecan Valley,” she said.

The eyewitness said she was worried for her mother’s safety when she realized her childhood home took some shots.

“Her bedroom window has been shot and also the back of her house. She’s been here fifty years with no trouble, and now this,” she said. “It really saddens me that she has to live in fear.”

The woman said the thought that the gunmen were after each other is absolutely no comfort. 

“Bullets? They don't have a name on them," she said. "They go any and everywhere.”

Another man who lives nearby said he was sitting in his front yard and watched the fire fight. He called it disappointing and troubling.

Still, he said, life goes on, and early Sunday the neighbors were busy doing what they always do, which is keeping their homes in top condition.

While one man worked on trimming his grass, a slow-moving older woman meticulously cleaned one of her large trash bins. When offered help, the woman, who struggled with the job, insisted on being self-sufficient. 

The daughter said it is that spirit, of keeping the community at its best, that she finds heartbreaking when trouble comes whizzing by in the form of bullets.

“Some of these people have been here as long as my Mom, about 50 years, and now they are afraid to come out and talk as neighbors,” she said. “A lot of the neighbors wouldn't even come out or open their doors, and this is a close knit neighborhood. We all love each other around here.”

With regard to the attack, police have shared no reports of arrests...and no suspect descriptions.

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