The gunman who killed 24-year-old Franky Garza last week has not yet been identified, police said, just one day after he arrived in the city to start a new life.
SAN ANTONIO — Franky Garza Just moved to a new cityhoping for a new beginning. Then, just a day later, the 24-year-old was shot to death outside an apartment building. Now, his family is pleading for answers.
“He just left,” said his mother, Erica Garza. “Just for another person or persons to take his life away.”
According to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to an apartment complex in San Antonio, Texas, late Wednesday night to treat an “injured sick adult.” The caller said a man passed out in front of a residence.
When officers arrived, they found Frankie unconscious with an apparent gunshot wound to the abdomen. Deputies and medical personnel attempted life-saving measures, but Frankie died at the scene.
BCSO said the case is being investigated as a homicide.
Frankie’s family said he moved to San Antonio from Carrizo Springs, Texas, on Tuesday, May 5, to stay with a friend while he looked for his own apartment. He most recently worked at SpartanNash in North Dakota and hopes to find a similar job in San Antonio.
His dream was to get a commercial driver’s license, become a truck driver and one day start a business with his father using their last name, his mother said.
“He wanted to try to have his own apartment and get a job,” Erica said. “As a mom, I was hesitant, but then I said, ‘Okay, that’s okay.'”
Erica said she saw her son in San Antonio the day before he was killed while she was in the city visiting a doctor. She said Frankie made sure she hugged him before leaving.
“He said, ‘Be sure to come over and give me a hug before you leave,'” Erica said.
She said Frankie called her just after 10pm the next night to ask about her sister Alyssa, who was sleeping. Erica said he called again about 10 minutes later.
She called the call the worst of her life.
“He was like, ‘Mom, can you call me? [my roommate]? Told her I’d been shot,” Erica recalled. “I thought he was joking because he always joked with me. “
But then, she said, she heard her son struggle to breathe.
“I heard him breathing, like he couldn’t breathe properly,” she said. “He was breathing heavily.”
Erica, who lives about two hours away in Carrizo Springs, struggled to keep Frankie on the line while trying to contact his roommate. Frankie’s sister, Alexis Ivey, eventually contacted his roommate, who said Frankie went to the store with a new friend he met the day before and then to another apartment building in the same building.
Alexis said the roommate first told her Frankie was outside and was fine, then went to check on him.
“She said, ‘Alexis, I can’t find him. He’s not here. I don’t know where he is,'” Alexis said.
After a while, the roommate called back, Alexis said. She went to her friend’s building and used Frankie’s phone ringing to find Frankie outside the third-floor apartment.
“She said, ‘I found him, I found him, he’s here,'” Alexis said. “And that was it. She just said, ‘He didn’t respond.'”
Frankie’s family is already on the way to San Antonio, trying to find out where he will be taken. Erica said she kept hoping she would arrive and find her son alive.
“In my mind, I kept thinking, ‘No, I’m going to get there. He’s going to be fine,'” she said. “It’s not fair that he died on my phone.”
Erica said Frankie was loving, trusting and eager to build a better life. He has talked about moving to San Antonio or Minnesota, where he has family.
“I was like, ‘Why do you want to leave?'” Erica said. “He said, ‘No, I just want to give it a try. This is a new beginning.'”
She said her son was a loving and caring man who treated her like a queen. He plans to visit her over Mother’s Day weekend.
“He was supposed to come see me over the weekend, but that didn’t happen,” Erica said.
Frankie’s family believe the person who last saw him may hold the key to the case.
“That man was the last person to be with my son and he knew it,” Erica said. “He must know something.”
Erica is asking anyone in the apartment complex who saw or heard anything, or who may have doorbell or surveillance video from that night, to contact investigators
“I want justice for my son,” she said. “Help us, my family. I want to know who did this to my son. He needs justice because he didn’t deserve to die like this.”
