Woman recounts horror of seeing San Antonio detective's murder
LULING, Texas — A plumbing business owner cannot put out of her mind the horror she and her daughter witnessed in San Antonio on Sunday.
“My daughter said, 'Oh, my God,'” Jennifer Patterson said. “'I cannot believe he just shot that policeman.'”
As Patterson drove toward the Mi Tierra restaurant for her mother’s 90th birthday meal, she saw San Antonio Police Detective Benjamin Marconi’s final moments.
“(I saw) every bit of it,” she said. “Every sad bit of it, yes.”
Patterson and her daughter saw Marconi, 50, ambushed by a man who shot the detective while he was writing a traffic ticket near police headquarters.
At first, the mother and daughter fled.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to be shooting all around the area,” Patterson said. “But, as soon as he shot, he left. We immediately turned around ....”
She saw two men plus a family with three young boys who were on their way to a movie stop and try to help. There was nothing they could do.
Patterson could not rest easy until she saw the suspect, Otis McKane, 30, arrested and headed to jail.
Now, her thoughts have turned to Marconi’s family.
“I hope they have the comfort of knowing that he’s caught,” Patterson said. “He’s caught and he’s not out there to do it again.”
Follow Larry Seward on Twitter: @LSewardKHOU