The back-and-forth exchange between two top local officials came after a weekend of violence that left three people dead, including two teens. Credit: Courtesy Photo / City of San Antonio (left) and Michael Karlis (right)

Following a slew of shootings in San Antonio over the weekend, it looks like the blame game is setting in.

San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus took a jab at Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales during a Monday press conference, saying his office too often releases violent criminals back onto the streets.

However, Gonzales fired back in an interview with TV station News4SA, passing the blame to weak magistrate judges.

Over the weekend, a 16-year-old, an 18-year-old and a 32-year-old aspiring rapper were all gunned down in what McManus described as “targeted” killings. The latter was shot while getting a haircut inside North Star Mall.

“There’s a lot of issues right now that I think are causing gun violence in this country. One of them obviously is the access to firearms,” McManus told reporters. “It seems that anyone who wants to carry a gun is carrying it, and there are people out there that in the past you may not suspect would be carrying a firearm, but today they sure are.”

McManus added that SAPD is hard at work, adding that his department is making more arrests in 2023 than in the past. While arrests are up overall, he said the people being arrested are frequently violent criminals already out on multiple bonds.

“We so often arrest people who are out on more than one bond, they’re out on probation, and they get arrested again, and their probation is not revoked, and there’s another bond issued,” McManus said. “That is an issue. It’s an issue for the police department. It’s an issue for every person walking the street who could be put in danger by these folks that are being put back out on the street.”

McManus’ beef about the bonds appears to be sniping at the district attorney’s office, which is charged with prosecuting criminals and recommending bond terms.

Indeed, Gonzales’ political opponents have argued that he isn’t tough on violent offenders, pointing to his support of cite-and-release policies.

Even so, Gonzales deflected in a TK TV interview, passing the blame to magistrate judges instead of his prosecutors. Gonzales said that he shares McManus’ frustrations because the bonds recommended by his office are often reduced.

“We’re fighting hard to make sure that these people that commit violent offenses are being punished, but, again, remember the system allows someone to be out on bond pending their trial,” Gonzales told News4SA’s Jordan Elder. “And so we have to just work within the system until if it ever changes.”

One way SAPD is trying to crack down on violent crime is via its new “hot spot” policing initiative, a policy that increases patrols in high-risk neighborhoods.

UTSA researchers told city council last week that the program helped bring down violent crime in San Antonio by 9.5%-11% between January and April of this year, according to the Express-News.

However, District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo questioned UTSA’s data on Twitter, writing that the public shouldn’t “draw big sweeping conclusions from preliminary data and small sample size.”

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This article appears in May 31 – Jun 13, 2023.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...