The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has about a half a dozen officers in their Street Crimes Unit who have to cover the entire county. For the past year, however, their focus has been taking down the gangs they say are terrorizing the Northeast Side.
"I've never seen so many assault weapons," one neighbor told News 4.Just last week, a 3-year old was shot as she slept. The shooting which led parents to question whether or not their children can be safe in their own homes.
"It's picked up a lot over on the Northeast Side of town," said Kris Saxon of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.During the day, the signs of gang violence are everywhere."You can see the house is riddled with bullets," Saxon said, pointing to a home in the area. "There's bullet holes up there. They returned fire. There's bullet holes up there. And look how many kids are out here."But deputies say the real danger for the children is at night."At night under the cover of darkness, it's a totally different world," explained Saxon.It's a world where two very different groups are constantly clashing. "The gang members from New Orleans and the gang members from San Antonio do not get along. They don't like each other," explained Saxon. "I think that has to do with different lifestyles."Deputies say Hurricane Katrina brought a storm of violence into San Antonio almost immediately after the evacuees arrived."I remember within a week of the evacuees getting here, I arrested three gang members from New Orleans out on the Northeast Side of town in a stolen car with guns, and they just did a burglary," Saxon told News 4.In the year following Katrina, assault calls went up more than 14% in the area."Oh, they're involved in everything," added Saxon. "They fight in the middle of the street. They're involved in burglaries, robberies, homicide. We get drive-by shootings. We get carjackings. They're dealing drugs to further enhance their gang."News 4's crew was in the car as deputies got into a high speed chase with a man. The man later admitted to having drugs, which deputies said he probably bought from a gang member.
The deputies told News 4 the number of Katrina gang members in San Antonio is actually falling. But they said with that, comes another problem."Now you can look around, and you can see for yourself, 95% of them are empty and trashed out," Saxon said, referring to homes in the neighborhood.

 Edit Post