Brothers Dead in San Antonio After Being Shot by 'Ticking Time Bomb' Neighbour in an Unprovoked Attack

The shooting occurred on Tuesday, 5 August, after the brothers were reportedly backing a vehicle into their driveway in San Antonio, Texas.

Daniel Antonio Perez, the 40-year-old attacker who lived across the street, then opened fire on the brothers before fleeing the neighbourhood. He was arrested around 10 minutes later.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar described Perez as a 'ticking time bomb' and said charges would be upgraded to include two counts of capital murder.

More Details on the Unprovoked Shooting

Investigators allege that Perez ran across the street from his home and shot at the brothers multiple times. However, authorities believe there was no existing dispute between the men before the encounter, leading them to conclude that the shooting was unprovoked.

'It's an extremely unfortunate situation for the family that just simply fell victim to this guy. Unbeknownst to them, they had what I would believe and categorise as a ticking time bomb right across the street from them,' Sheriff Salazar stated.

Maliki was reportedly hit multiple times in the head and torso, leaving him critically injured. He later died from his wounds at 8:49pm. His brother, Dravyn, also died 12 hours after being taken to hospital with critical injuries.

According to investigators, two other siblings came outside during the shooting and were also fired upon, but fortunately, neither was injured.

Andrew Perales, the brothers' father, also desperately performed CPR on his children, according to investigators.

A Heartbroken Father's Remarks

Andrew Perales was visibly shaken when speaking to a local news outlet outside their San Antonio home. He stated: 'I don't even know how I'm gonna bury him. I don't know how I want to carry on. I don't know what I'm gonna do.'

The brothers' father said the family had no enemies and struggled to understand why their sons had been targeted.

'We're not those kind of people,' Perales said. 'We always help people. People always come to us for help. We don't have enemies.'

He described his sons as strong and as fighters, saying they had good morals and values because he had raised them right. When asked about his sons' killer, he stated: 'The devil knows my intentions, but God knows my heart.'

Possible Mental Health Issues

Andrew also shared in the interview that the shooter had experienced mental health crises before but had never been reported to authorities. He stated that '[Perez] was possibly seeing things that were not there.'

Meanwhile, Sheriff Salazar does not believe this automatically means Perez should be considered incapable of being held responsible for his actions.

'He still had the presence of mind and the culpable mental state to go conceal the weapon somewhere, and then go conceal himself somewhere else. The only reason we found him is that we were able to utilise his cell phone signal to ping where he was,' the sheriff stated.

Perez now faces four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and is being held on $2.3 million bond (£1.7 million), in addition to the upgraded charges.