Bizarre incident at Quarry leads to deathWeb Posted: 05/14/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Vianna Davila, Tracy Idell Hamilton and Vincent T. Davis
Express-News Staff Writers
A man previously charged with indecent exposure was shot and killed Friday by an off-duty constable at the Alamo Quarry Market after the officer confronted the man as he fondled himself inside his car in the parking lot.
The deadly confrontation began when Bexar County Deputy Constable John Burns, working security at the busy shopping center, responded to a complaint about a man, wearing only his underwear, masturbating in a black four-door Mazda in full view of passing shoppers.
The man, 24-year-old Tyler Green, slammed his car door on the constable's hand, started the car and dragged the officer along with him as he careened through the parking lot.
Burns fired two shots while being dragged, one hitting him in the hand, the other striking Green in the head.
The car continued moving, slamming into other parked vehicles before coming to a stop.
Green was taken by helicopter to Brooke Army Medical Center, where he died around 7 p.m., San Antonio police spokesman Sgt. Gabe Trevino said.
An ambulance took Burns, a Bexar County deputy constable, to a local hospital with injuries to his hand and bruises.
The incident occurred at about 4 p.m. in the Quarry parking lot outside of the Old Navy and Whole Foods stores.
Police taped off a large area of the lot, from Whole Foods to PacSun at the edge of the shopping center. Vehicles inside the circle of police tape couldn't be moved for more than an hour, as evidence technicians pored over items in Green's car, including a baby carrier.
Green was charged with indecent exposure in 2002 and then received deferred adjudication, wiping the charge from his record after serving probation. A second 2002 indecency exposure charge, involving a child, was dismissed.
The shooting halted much of the Quarry's shopping traffic on Friday afternoon, as patrons spilled out from stores and their cars to see what happened.
Clayton Crews was sitting in his white Suburban reading "Trace," the latest Patricia Cornwell murder mystery, while his wife Veronica and daughter Sunny were shopping at Old Navy.
The story was getting intense when he heard five loud blasts behind him. He saw the black Mazda speed across several lanes before crashing into a gray truck four lanes away.
Crews called his wife on his cell phone, telling her that a man had been shot and for her to stay inside the store. Police arrived two minutes later, Crews said.
Ramon Vlaun, 35, was shopping inside the Verizon Wireless store when he heard the shots and the screech of tires.
He rushed out to where the black Mazda stopped and saw a man, shot in the head and slumped against a window splattered with blood.
"Right between the eyes," Vlaun said.
A group of teenagers from Tom Moore High School in Ingram stood in front of Old Navy, chattering at each other and into cell phones. Their classmate witnessed the shooting and had been taken to police headquarters for a statement.
"He's kind of in shock," said one girl. "Everyone ran inside when they heard the shots, but he just stood there."
Some employees yelled at shoppers to take cover inside stores.
"People are definitely scared," said Brenna Kuykendall, an Old Navy employee, moments after the incident took place. "It's very chaotic here. There are a ton of police officers. There's a lot of noise and confusion."
Kuykendall said she didn't realize what was going on until she heard the wail of the sirens.
"I didn't hear any (gunshots) because at Old Navy our music is so loud," she said.
Anne Lovell, a sales assistant at another store, heard the popping sounds and assumed it was a shooting.
"I was pretty sure that's what it was," said Lovell, 68. "It's one of those things that could happen anywhere."
Another shooting in the Quarry parking lot, this one just after midnight, took a man's life in February 2002.
Virginia Garza, 40, was walking out of Bally's gym at the Quarry that night in 2002 when she ran into the crime scene and on Friday she was walking out of a movie with her daughter when she saw the circle of tape and throng of police cars.
"Oh no, not again," she thought.
Author
