Seven officers were ambushed and shot in Stone Oak. But it wasn’t the first time it’s happened in SA

SAN ANTONIO — Seven San Antonio Police officers were shot in Stone Oak Wednesday night and the shooter is now dead in an incident that unfolded over several hours, officials said.

The suspect barricaded himself in an apartment for hours and was later found dead by SWAT officers. The terrified neighbors at the Sonterra Heights apartment complex on the far north side were instructed to remain sheltered in their apartments as police negotiated with the suspect. 

The startling scene in a quiet area of north San Antonio was a shocking one, but also a familiar one. Similar ambushes on police have occurred over the years, resulting in injuries and deaths of San Antonio police officers, including some stories that have stayed in the memories of San Antonians for decades. 

Two officers were shot, including one fresh out of the police academy, by a suspect wanted on a warrant for deadly conduct. The officers were at his home and approached inside the house when he started shooting. 

Rookie police officer Brandy Roel was shot in her legs and lower back. She managed to fire two full rounds at cover to escape the house and get to safety. Roel had three young children at the time of the shooting. She told her full story to news outlet Police 1. 

Officer Lawrence Robarts was also shot in the knee.

In one of San Antonio’s most famous news stories, four officers were wounded, including one who died years later, in January of 2003 at a northeast-side Denny’s restaurant. 

Police say a man who was angry at his girlfriend went on the offensive and opened fire on the officers and other patrons of the restaurant. 

The suspect punched and then shot two officers. Then when two more officers came to the aid of the wounded, the gunman shot them also. At the time, officials said more than 40 rounds were fired in a hand-to-hand close combat battle that eventually killed the assailant.

One of the officers gravely wounded as Officer David Evans. He died in 2022. The Medical Examiner ruled that Evans’ death, at age 70, was related to lifelong complications from being shot during the Denny’s incident 19 years earlier.

Officers Eddie Gorrell and Onefre Serna were shot by a suspect while working foot patrol downtown. The suspect, described as a “street person, reportedly held six people hostage in a three-hour standoff with police on the upper floor of an office buliding. 

He was in a coma for the four months following the shooting.

Patrolman Gorrell had served with the agency for two years. He was survived by his wife, daughter, and son.