Seven people in all were hurt when the suspects rolled up and opened fire on June 18, 2022, along Patron Drive in southwest San Antonio.
SAN ANTONIO — A second person has been arrested and faces murder charges amid a yearslong police investigation into a 2022 drive-by shooting that left two people dead in southwest San Antonio.
Darius Patric Torres, 26, is the second person to be arrested for alleged murder in connection with the shooting, which disrupted a family barbecue along the 2500 block of Patron Drive the evening of June 18, 2022. In addition to the two men who police say were murdered, five others were treated for gunshot wounds, their ages ranging from 19 to 44 years old.
Just minutes after police got word of that shooting, they received another call for gunfire at a nearby convenience store. According to arrest records, investigators gathered video surveillance showing the suspect vehicle appeared to match the car involved in the Patron Drive incident.
Torres, along with Nathan Alexander Martinez and Christian Mark Jimenez, were stopped by police on June 19, 2022, at which point authorities found “several handguns and apparent narcotics,” records state. Two of the guns were illegally altered with devices allowing them to be fired like fully automatic weapons.
All three were arrested that day for drug and gun-related offenses, online court records show.
But it wasn’t until later in the investigation that firearms found in that car, a Dodge Durango, matched ballistics evidence gathered from both the Patron Drive shooting and the drive-by that unfolded outside the nearby store in June 2022, according to records.
“The shell casings were determined to have been fired by three of the five firearms found in possession of Nathan Martinez, Darius Torres and Christian Jimenez when they were arrested,” an affidavit states.
Investigators said Torres also claimed a gun at the center of the investigation connected to Patron Drive was his.
Online court records show Torres was booked into the Bexar County jail Tuesday night and faces a new charge of capital murder-multiple persons. A judge set his bond at $750,000; he must adhere to full house arrest and GPS-monitoring conditions if released.
Nathan Alexander Martinez, 22, is the only other person charged with murder – as well as aggravated assault with a deadly weapon – in connection with the Patron Drive shooting. He was arrested in November 2023 as part of an investigation into a separate fatal shooting.
Martinez is being remanded without bond and his trial is expected to begin in early May.