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No charges anticipated for San Marcos resident who shot teens
Updated: 9/4/2009
By: Jenna Hiller and Web Staff
San Marcos Police said a resident of a house on Chestnut Street shot three of the four teens who entered the house just before 2 a.m.
According to a press release Friday, San Marcos police do not anticipate filing charges against a resident who shot three Luling teenagers, killing two, after they broke into his home in Western San Marcos early Friday morning.
"At this time, we do not anticipate filing charges against the resident for firing the shots," San Marcos Police Chief, Howard Williams, said.
Instead, San Marcos police will be turning the case over to the Hays County District Attorney's office for review after San Marcos PD completes their investigation.
The news that two teens were killed in a home invasion in this neighborhood near Texas State University surprised students who live in the area.
San Marcos Police said a resident of a house on Chestnut Street shot three of the four teens who entered the house just before 2 a.m. He fired several shots with a 40 caliber Glock handgun.
"One of the residents in the house heard the commotion, when the suspects entered the house. He had a pistol of his own, he opened his bedroom door, when he did one of the suspects in his living room pointed a weapon at him," Williams said.
Police said that's when the resident shot three of the teens, killing two of the 16 year-olds, and wounding a third.
Police also said 17 year-old Frank Castro, left the home, but was arrested a short time later.
According to police two of the teens had a pellet gun; a third was carrying a hand gun.
A next-door neighbor said one of the people who lived in the house was a gun collector, but she had never known him to use them.
"It's something that he knew everything about- something that was never intended for anything like that. He had them in cases. I have never seen anyone touch them. He had them dated back to his grandpa's guns from World Wars," Neighbor, Hillary Skogskill said.
A focus of the police investigation is determining why the 4 teens were entering this house in the middle of the night armed with weapons. One person who lives there, but wasn't home at the time said he thinks they've probably been there before.
"We have an open door policy for everyone, hey let's hang out. I'm assuming that somebody heard about that or they've been here and knew we're cool. But obviously it's not cool if you're coming with guns," a resident said.
Neighbors are calling the shooting a gut reaction.
"There's two 16 year-olds who don't get to wake up today, but at the same time, you know, there's intruders at 2:00 in the morning, you're not gonna wait for them to walk in to see if they're armed," Skogskill said.
That reaction left two teenagers dead, another in the hospital, and another in San Marcos Police custody.
Castro was charged with aggravated robbery, which is a first degree felony. His bond has been set at $50,000.
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=251496
