San Marcos Police Identify Suspect in Downtown Shooting, Arrest Teen in Separate Incident

San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge spoke at a news conference Thursday with San Marcos Assistant City Manager Lonzo Anderson about a man who died Tuesday in police custody.

San Marcos police have identified a suspect in a deadly shooting on the downtown square over Halloween weekend and announced an arrest in a separate shooting at an apartment complex on Post Road.

City officials said three separate shootings happened in San Marcos on the night of Nov. 1 and 2, leaving one person dead and multiple others injured. In response, San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said the department will increase police presence downtown.

The first shooting happened around 10 p.m. Nov. 1 in the area of Kissing Alley on Hopkins Street, according to Russell Wilde, public safety communications specialist for the city of San Marcos. Multiple gunshots were fired along the busy bar corridor, and three people were taken to area hospitals. One of them later died.

On Thursday, San Marcos police identified 24-year-old Patrick Dave Anderson as the suspect in that downtown shooting, which left 19-year-old Ronnie Hernandez Jr., who was shot between five and seven times, dead and two other people injured. Anderson moved to San Marcos from Arizona in October, police said.

Investigators said two groups passed each other on the sidewalk near Kissing Alley and an argument broke out. Anderson is accused of firing multiple shots into one of the groups, striking three people and killing Hernandez.

Officers responded to reports of shots fired on the square and closed Hopkins Street between LBJ Drive and Guadalupe Street while they searched the area. Bars around the square were asked to close for the night as officers secured the scene and interviewed witnesses.

In the immediate aftermath, police said they were looking for two suspects and released descriptions of two men seen leaving the area. Investigators have since identified the second individual, who is cooperating with the investigation and is not being sought, officials said.

Anderson has not been arrested and is believed to have left San Marcos. The U.S. Marshals Service is assisting in the search.

San Marcos police also released new information on a separate shooting early Nov. 2 at the Outpost Apartments in the 1600 block of Post Road. Investigators said a fight near the complex’s pool area escalated into gunfire.

Police said they are looking for 17-year-old John Anthony "Chucky" Contreras of Kyle, who is wanted on a charge of attempted capital murder of multiple persons in connection with the Post Road shooting.

A second suspect, 17-year-old D’antrae Houston, was arrested Nov. 6 in Lockhart on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to police.

Investigators have said the Post Road shooting is not believed to be connected to the downtown homicide.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Anderson or Contreras is asked to call San Marcos police at 512-753-2108 or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-324-TIPS.