On Sunday afternoon, a man walked along the main commercial strip in San Antonio’s Deco District, hurling bricks and tables through storefront windows in an apparently random act of vandalism, according to witnesses and shopkeepers.
In a preliminary report provided to the Current, San Antonio Police Department officials said they responded to reports of criminal mischief in the area Sunday afternoon.
“The unknown suspect was seen leaving the area. Officers searched the surrounding area but did not locate the suspect,” the report stated.
SAPD said the investigation remains active.
“Well, this is insane,” Kristina Uriegas-Reyes, owner of vintage clothing and accessories shop Hello Tallulah, owner of vintage clothing and accessories shop Hello Tallulah, wrote Sunday evening in a Facebook post showing the damage. In comments below the photo, she called the incident “random chaos in the middle of the day.”
“I heard a crash next door and saw a man in a teal shirt walk past my door. I went outside to see what the noise was,” Uriegas-Reyes told the Current via private message. “Someone had thrown a brick through Brainwave Records’ window. I was looking at the window when I heard another crash. I saw the teal man walking away. There are little tables around [gaming shop and bar] Black Potion. The man threw a table through the window.”
Shopkeepers told the Current the incident occurred at 2:55 p.m. Multiple witnesses reported seeing a man in a teal shirt fleeing the scene. Within a few minutes, San Antonio Police Department officers arrived and took statements from witnesses, Uriegas-Reyes told the Current.
Paul Mata, an employee of Brainwave Records, said he was inside the building but in a nearby business preparing for an event when the incident occurred.
“I was pretty shocked because Sundays are fairly busy here at this complex,” Mata said. “It’s not like there wouldn’t be any witnesses.”
Mata said Brainwave was “really lucky” because there were two customers close to the window when it happened, but they were shielded by a stack of speakers. Had the speakers not been there, the couple “definitely would have been hit by that brick,” he added.
He attributed the destruction to “senseless vandalism.”
“I don’t believe it targeted us or the other store,” Mata said. “I couldn’t really try and find logic in it, to be honest.”
Mata added that he couldn’t identify the man, but that he looked “vaguely familiar.”
Both Brainwave and Black Potion are boarded up as of Monday, but Mata told the Current that business continues as usual, and if anything, walk-in traffic has increased.
“We’ve had multiple people come in here today and say that they heard about what happened and were here to support us,” Mata said.
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