San Antonio U.S. Air Force Veteran Victim of Fatal Shooting

Beatrice McKinnon had to see for herself where her baby brother Douglas Ray English, 47, had been fatally shot Tuesday evening.

English had just arrived at his friend's house in the 900 block of East Crockett and was sitting on the porch around 8:40 p.m. when someone in a dark sedan fired multiple shots with an AK-47, police said.

“There were gunshots on both sides of two houses,” McKinnon, 56, said after she visited the scene.

English, a U.S. Air Force veteran and the brother of an East Side activist, was struck numerous times. He died an hour later at San Antonio Military Medical Center.

His blood stained the porch where he had fallen, his sister said.

Sitting alongside their mother, Olga English, McKinnon and her brother Charles English, 52, struggled to comprehend their brother's death.

“He was a victim of a very violent crime,” said Charles English, who's the founder and president of the Jefferson Heights Neighborhood Association and is active in East Side politics. “And now that crime has been visited upon his children, his mother, his sisters, his brother, nieces, nephews and cousins.”

Douglas English was a father of two — a son, 19 and daughter, 20 —and stepfather to his ex-wife's daughter, 25.

English was one of five men injured in two drive-by shootings Tuesday night that police said appear unrelated.

“We've never seen this, ourselves,” McKinnon said. “We've never had anyone close to us murdered.”

McKinnon and Charles English said police told the family their brother was an innocent bystander. No clear motive was apparent Wednesday, police said.

Oscar Quilez, 54, was in the living room of the home on East Crockett watching TV with another person, police said, when the shots began. He was hit in the leg and taken to University Hospital, police said.

A third victim, Roger Wayne Smith, 48, had come to the house to pick up clothes and was shot in the abdomen and leg, police said.

Smith was taken to San Antonio Military Medical Center with injuries not thought to be life-threatening.

About 15 minutes later, two men were injured in a drive-by shooting in the 300 block of Corliss Street. The victims were hospitalized with injuries not thought to be life-threatening, police said.

Charles English was the one who called his two sisters, McKinnon and Janie English Davis, 51, to tell them of their brother's death. Their two other brothers and father are deceased.

Charles English said the family was waiting to tell Douglas English's son, who was already on his way to town for the holidays.

Olga English said little as her children talked about the impact this would have on all of them. Christmas was always a joyous time, the family said, not just because of the holiday but because Olga English's birthday is two days later.

She will turn 72 this year.

McKinnon said she will most miss her brother's smile and laugh.

Nearly a decade older, McKinnon often took care of her brother. He tagged along with her so often that even as an adult people would ask jokingly where “that little boy was.”

Douglas English was a witty joker, his family said. His playfulness and intelligence — not to mention being a varsity football at Highlands High School — had “all the girls after him,” his brother said.

He loved chess, and like his siblings before him Douglas English was in ROTC and learned to type. Their father, also in the military, hoped they could enter with clerical jobs so they would not have to shoot weapons.

When he was 18, Douglas English entered the Air Force, and after four years went into the reserves.

After the Air Force, he was a forklift operator and then a car salesman.

But he was out of work, and at times he landed at Haven for Hope, his brother said. Charles English said he was unsure why his brother stayed there, even for a short time, since there was always a place for him with his family.

He was not a drug dealer, drug user or a violent person, his brother said.

Douglas English had lived in the neighborhood since he was little. His friends and family were here. It was where he felt comfortable and safe.

“His demise occurred in the neighborhood where he also played in the Little League,” Charles English said. “It was where he learned to play T-ball. There's no reason for him to be gunned down in his own neighborhood.”

Source:  San Antonio Express News - Staff Writer Eva Ruth Moravec contributed to this report.