SAN ANTONIO — For the second time this week, San Antonio Police Department investigators said they have used ballistic proof and social media snooping to make a murder arrest.
18-year-old Tristan Lerma is jailed on four charges with a bond totaling $450,000.
Lerma is accused of a daylight drive-by shooting attack back on Aug. 30 that killed a 61-year-old man and one of the family dogs.
Michael Molina died after his home on Bob Billa Street was sprayed with bullets.
Molina was rushed to the hospital with critical injuries, which he died from on Sept. 8.
Molina's grandson told investigators he believed he was the intended target of the attack because he had been accused of being connected to a 2021 murder.
19-year-old Antonio Arturo Rodriguez told police he was in the front yard of the home when the shooting happened. He was not injured.
One neighbor, who feared retaliation, called the arrest a big relief, saying everyone has been on edge, fearing the gunman might return.
"Everyone was in a panic here. It was chaos. That's never happened in our neighborhood before, ever," the neighbor said.
An affidavit that lays out the details in the case said when bullets were flying, a man who lives nearby returned fire on the speeding car, in an incident that left the street littered with shell casings.
Court records indicate the neighbor's shot hit a juvenile suspect in the fleeing car and that injury was a helpful clue.
The affidavit indicates when the injured juvenile was dropped off at a nearby emergency clinic, surveillance video captured images of the vehicle involved.
A relative of the youngster provided another link, identifying Lerma as being involved in the incident.
Another clue came from the vehicle when it was later recovered on the west side on South San Marcos Street when detectives said they found blood evidence in the car, linking it to the attack.
Talking with witnesses, detectives began mining social media accounts. With a search warrant, they said they were able to gain access to private messages from Lerma.
The messages included details about dropping the juvenile at the clinic, the location where the vehicle was left and the name "Tony" which matched the intended target.
Detectives said other social media posts included images of the car and Lerma days before the attack.
Detectives added that when they submitted shell casings found on Bob Billa to a national database, there was an immediate connection to evidence from another shooting six days earlier on Diamondback Trail. Detectives said the casings found outside Lerma's home were a match to those found at the fatal attack.
Charges against Lerma include: murder, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of deadly conduct with a firearm.
Meanwhile, just eight days after the fatal attack, the grandson who was the target was sentenced to seven years in prison on a charge of tampering with evidence in the 2021 case.