A man was sentenced to 30 years in prison after his father was in the caught in the crossfire of a shootout during a family dispute on the west side in 2024.
SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after the 2024 murder of his father.
In November 2024, Brayan Lopez-Esparza was involved in a dispute between the mother of his child and her new boyfriend. The argument began over the phone, but escalated in person at the grandmother’s far west-side home.
When the boyfriend initially arrived at the home to pick up the child, the grandmother would not let him inside or have access to the child.
The boyfriend proceeded to contact family members for assistance, causing several relatives to arrive at the residence.
The grandmother, concerned when Lopez-Esparza and the girlfriend arrived, contacted his parents to come pick up the child instead.
As tensions rose outside the home, Lopez-Esparza and the boyfriend began to exchange words. A comment made by the boyfriend before getting in his car to leave angered Lopez-Esparza and led him to produce a weapon.
Lopez-Esparza began shooting in the direction of the boyfriend’s car and the surrounding group, still standing outside the home.
Records show that one of the initial shots struck the boyfriend’s father in the foot, but that didn’t stop Lopez-Esparza from continuing to fire the gun as relatives began to scatter to safety.
When the boyfriend began driving towards Lopez-Esparza he shot his final round, which ended up fatally striking his own father.
Two days following the deadly incident, officers with the San Antonio Police Department located Lopez-Esparza and arrested him on a murder warrant.
On Wednesday, Lopez-Esparza was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of his father, Jorge Lopez.