Homeless neighbors say the man facing two charges needs help.
SAN ANTONIO — Neighbors who know the man accused of a threatening hatchet incident at a youth football game Sunday say he is a good person who needs help.
Jeffrey Reeves, 53, is jailed on one count of assault of a peace officer and one count of unlawfully carrying a weapon.
One woman who said Reeves has lived near her tent in a wooded area adjacent to where the incident happened, said Reeves has serious mental health issues.
“We hear him off and on at night, he’ll be yelling at nobody. There’s like nobody there but he’ll be yelling at whatever he sees or hears,” she said.
The woman said when he has access to health care and medications, Reeves is a good neighbor who will help anyone in trouble but she added he somehow lost his health care coverage and is now struggling.
“I talked to him one day and he said he’d only made $4 in one day and his prescription was like $30,” the woman said. “He couldn’t pay for all his prescriptions and so if you have mental disorders and you can’t take your medications they get out of control.”
Other residents of the encampment said they knew something was wrong Sunday afternoon when Reeves failed to return to the camp to take care of his constant companion, a sturdy pit mix dog named Showy.
Several people said Showy approached other tents in the camp, as if to ask for help, not knowing Reeves was in jail.
Video posted online by a spectator attending a football game at the Somerset Academy Collegiate on Vance Jackson shows a man, identified as Reeves, waving a hatchet in a threatening manner while he was involved in a confrontation with a security guard.
With people chanting “Shoot him!” the video shows the officer working hard to de-escalate what could have been a deadly encounter.
At one point the officer drew a weapon but instead of shooting, he somehow convinced the suspect to leave the stadium.
The video shows that as the man was walking away, he was tackled and held for police.
Monday morning, there was another upset in the camp as an unattended campfire went up in flames and destroyed a tent and all the worldly possessions of a couple living there.
Firefighters made quick work of dousing the flames and they also provided medical care for a man who suffered burns to his neck.
The man said he was burned when he pushed through the flames to escape the tent.
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Knowing that these incidents have drawn unwelcome attention to the camp, several people said they know an abatement action by the city is sure to follow.
One woman who said she had been living in the area off and on for ten years said the disruptions are predictable.
“Outreach guys say they will help and they never do. They call it abatement but all they did was clean out our stuff,” the woman said.
A man who lives in a nearby tent said, “They say they will be back on this day and we wait and they never show up but they come back to run us off and take all our stuff.”
The man added that with more freezing temperatures in the forecast, it will be difficult to survive if outreach workers throw away the personal property they rely on to withstand the cold.
“We’ve been kicked out of numerous camps repeatedly and it’s hard,” the man said. “I heard the firefighters talking. We have 48 hours to get what we can.”
Meanwhile, Reeves remains jailed on bonds totaling $30,000. His initial court date is scheduled for March 18.
The Human Services Department provided the following statement about issues related to the encampment:
“The City of San Antonio Department of Human Services and partner agencies conduct outreach to connect with people experiencing homelessness in all City Council Districts.
In areas where people build encampment communities or frequent, the outreach teams will conduct additional visits to build relationships and ultimately connect people with stable shelter and housing.
In the Somerset Academy Collegiate vicinity, outreach teams conduct regular outreach and have conducted abatements at four sites within 3 to 4 miles. The San Antonio Police Department has confirmed it is scanning the wooded areas around Somerset Academy Collegiate, and no encampments have been reported. Encampments located near schools or with associated felony-level criminal activity are prioritized for site abatement in coordination with SAPD.
Communities can call 311 to bring awareness of an encampment. People seeking housing or shelter assistance can call the Community Connections Hotline at 210-207-1799.”