Robber killed by citizen shooter was shot at weeks earlier

Police outside the restaurant on South East Military Drive where a robber was fatally shot by a customer Wednesday. Police said the same robber had fled a Dollar General store on Nov. 21 after a customer there shot at him and missed, and detectives believe they can connect him to several other robberies. Staff photo by Jacob Beltran. less Police outside the restaurant on South East Military Drive where a robber was fatally shot by a customer Wednesday. Police said the same robber had fled a Dollar General store on Nov. 21 after a customer there ... more Photo: /Staff Photo: /Staff Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Robber killed by citizen shooter was shot at weeks earlier 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

When local real estate broker Stephen Manion saw the news that a young father, carrying a concealed weapon and having dinner with his two children at a Popeyes restaurant on the South Side, had shot and killed a masked robber last week at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, it struck him as weirdly familiar.

Around 8:30 p.m. on a Tuesday two weeks prior, Manion said, he was at a Dollar General on W.W. White Road “and stopped a robbery by firing at the very same guy.”

Manion missed. A San Antonio Police Department spokesman, Officer Doug Greene, confirmed that detectives believe the suspect who fled the Dollar General that night was Andres Herrera, 19, who was killed a week later at Popeyes.

Carlos Molina, 32, who was eating at Popeyes with his two kids on Dec. 6, had a license to carry a weapon and told police he opened fire after the robber pointed a gun at employees and customers, including him. Molina did not respond to interview requests left in text messages and notes. A police captain that night said he “really saved the day and protected a lot of people.”

Manion, 65, himself the father of three grown children, has had his concealed-carry license about seven years. He, too, said he only fired when he felt certain the robber was endangering the life of the Dollar General cashier and other shoppers.

Manion said he was shopping near the back of the store on Nov. 21 when he saw customers frantically coming his way from the front. He moved to another aisle and got a clear view of a robbery in progress.

“I went behind a rack of potato chips,” said Manion, who estimated he was about 16 feet from Herrera, who “was getting very agitated because the clerk was getting upset and having trouble getting the register open.”

“He was getting hysterical and screaming, `You’re taking too long.’ I was sure she was about to get shot,” Manion said.

Clutching his 9-millimeter handgun, Manion said he waited “what seemed like 20 minutes, but was probably only four” for Herrera to step away from the cashier, or for her to get out of way. Then, as Herrera leaned over the checkout counter and paused, Manion fired one round, but missed high.

“He started running out of the store, dropping one-dollar bills as he ran,” Manion said. “He was wearing sunglasses, but was very, very pale. I could see the gun, stainless or chrome, probably a .380-milimeter or similar. I couldn’t tell if he was on foot or had a car parked around the side.”

“I don’t think my blood pressure came up that much,” added Manion, who said he usually carries his gun whenever he leaves the house. “I did think for a moment that taking a shot at him could get me killed or that someone else might get hit. And, yes, I did think before firing that someone, somewhere, loves this kid. Everyone has a mother.”

Greene, the SAPD spokesman, said robbery detectives think the man Manion shot at was Herrera, and they’re working to see if Herrera might have been involved in numerous other armed robberies.

“There are still robbery victims out there waiting for us to do our job,” Greene said. “The investigation is still a work in progress, even if the guy we think did all the others is dead.”

Police on Friday arrested Trevon Deshon Atkinson, 18, who confessed to driving Herrera to the Popeyes after a hotel key card in Herrera’s pocket led officers to a hotel room rented by Atkinson, an arrest warrant affidavit states. The affidavit linked Herrera to a Dec. 5 robbery at a pawn shop because of evidence found in the room.

A San Antonio native, Manion said he had twice before had a gun pointed at him by robbers, here in the 1970s and again in the Virgin Islands in the early 1990s. Because gun owners are frequently stereotyped, Manion said he wanted the public to know that he was a Bexar County Democratic Party precinct chairman with political beliefs “to the left of Bernie Sanders.”

Liberals are misunderstood, he said. “The left is not trying to take away all the guns from the right. There is this concerted PR effort to discredit those with concealed-carry licenses and to really play it up if someone (with a license) does something stupid. I think most of those folks are the responsible ones.”

Manion said it had been years since he practiced shooting his gun.

Did he think about the possibility of retaliation if the robber had survived?

“That’s a valid consideration,” Manion said. “But not a fear.”