SAN ANTONIO — A 23-year-old man has been charged with murder in connection with a fatal Aug. 30 shooting over a stolen basketball at Hemisfair Plaza.
According to an arrest affidavit, Isean Eugene Hardeman was arrested Tuesday after police identified him as the suspect who shot 35-year-old Jonathan Henry Alderete once in the chest on a basketball court near the Tower of the Americas. Alderete was transported to SAMMC, where he died.
Alderete and his friends encountered four suspects on e-scooters who took their basketball. When Alderete confronted them, a physical altercation broke out, and the suspect pulled out a handgun and shot him.
Detectives tracked the shooter through downtown surveillance video as he fled on an e-scooter, walked through a motel parking lot, and rode VIA buses to the city’s East Side. Texas DPS identified Hardeman from transit footage, and two witnesses later positively identified him in a photo lineup.
Covert detectives detained Hardeman during a traffic stop on Tuesday, Sept. 2, near his apartment on Lasses Boulevard. Police found him armed with a handgun matching the caliber of the crime scene evidence. A passenger in the vehicle also told investigators that Hardeman had admitted to being the shooter.