SAN ANTONIO — To the all-seeing eye of the home surveillance camera, it looks like a sudden dust storm, as white powdery shrapnel fills the backyard in a blink.
Meanwhile, inside the home, a festive birthday celebration for their teenaged daughter had just finished up when a gunman started spraying the Ray Bon Drive area with gunfire on June 9.
San Antonio Police said before the gunman took his own life, he had fired more than 100 shots.
The family nearby said more than 20 of those slugs hit their home, barely missing them.
Mom of three, Tammy, said she and her kids are still shocked over the attack.
Reviewing the surveillance video, Tammy said "See all that white stuff? That's where the bullets are hitting our house. That's from my brick on the side of the house."
Tammy said many of the bricks lost chunks and she's thankful for the protection. Her son's bedroom window remains shattered, with five separate bullet holes.
She said the boy was sitting just inside the window playing a video game at the time and one of the bullets whizzed just over his head.
A week later, at least one slug remains flattened in the window frame. Tammy said she collected several more slugs from around her home and she's holding them for police in case they're interested in collecting the evidence of a seemingly senseless attack.
Medical Examiner has identified the man as 62-year-old Robert Brian Avila. With no information about his background, fearful neighbors continue to speculate about what could have possibly gone wrong at the Cottage Creek apartments.
Little has been published about the man found dead in the apartment after police filled it with gas to gain entry.
The Medical Examiner said that murder victim died from multiple gunshot wounds. He was 61-year-old Gregory Visman.
Neighbors in the complex called him a quiet fellow who caused no trouble as he moved about the area with the aid of a large walking stick.
Tammy said when the attack began, she pulled her three kids into an interior hallway and they all huddled on the floor while her husband went for a gun and tried to figure out what was happening.
With windows shattering, Tammy said she called 911 twice, while checking her kids for injuries.
"I told the dispatcher we're under fire! We're still under fire! And she goes 'Wait. What? They're shooting at you? There's bullets hitting your house?' and I said yes ma'am," Tammy said.
She added "It just missed my son's head! I would have been burying them both on my daughter's birthday."
Tammy said while they whispered quiet prayers for deliverance, more and more San Antonio Police officers flooded into the area, but nothing stopped the attack.
Afraid to look outside, Tammy said they had no choice but to crawl to the farthest reach of the house when glass shrapnel from breaking windows started flying into the hallway.
"We crawled to my daughter's room and I prayed 'please God just keep my family safe,'" Tammy said.
As minutes turned to hours, Tammy said the situation got even more scary when they heard someone on their roof. She said it took them some time to figure out a SWAT sniper had crawled up for a better vantage point in an effort to take out the gunman.
"I heard stomping on the roof and I was like 'Oh my God!' It was just nuts," Tammy said, adding that she feels the need to talk about the trauma to begin to let it go.
Tammy said "I have to talk about what's going on! This was not your normal situation! None of it was normal!"
Surveying the damage around the house, in addition to bricks and windows, there are bullet holes in the privacy fence, a storage shed and fascia boards around the roofline.
Tammy said she was relieved to hear from a police department representative Friday, who told her about a program that might help pay for some of the damages.
Tammy said she looks forward to learning more about the gunman and what may have led to such a tragic outcome.