Police say the shooting happened in a living room before the victim was moved to a backyard bin.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — An East Side home became the center of a homicide case after police said they found blood inside, a body outside and a nephew who admitted shooting his uncle days earlier.
The investigation unfolded at a residence on Sterling Street, in the Colosseum Willow Park area of east San Antonio, where police say Aquiminee La Roy Crawford and Derrick Cornell Crawford lived. What began for officers as a call about a dead person became a scene linking the living room, the suspect’s bedroom and the backyard recycling bin where the victim was found.
The first location police described was the living room. According to records summarized by investigators, Aquiminee Crawford told detectives he shot Derrick Crawford there on May 9. Police said he reported going to his bedroom to get a handgun after becoming angry at his uncle, then opening fire in the living room. Investigators later documented blood spatter on walls and the ceiling, along with a sofa cushion soaked with apparent blood. Those details placed the violence inside the home, not in the yard where the body was later found. The records do not say whether the living room was cleaned, disturbed or left as it was after the shooting.
The second location was the bedroom. Police said Crawford told detectives the handgun, spent shell casings and Derrick Crawford’s cellphone could be found there after the shooting. Investigators secured a search warrant and recovered a gun, a clear plastic bag containing spent shell casings and the phone, according to police records. That room became important because it connected the reported start of the shooting, when Crawford allegedly retrieved the gun, to the aftermath, when police say he stored evidence there. Authorities have not publicly said whether other items were seized, whether the phone had been powered off or whether the handgun was legally owned.
The third location was the backyard. Police arrived around 9:30 p.m. May 17 after a 911 call from a person later identified as Crawford. Officers said he told them his uncle was “shot up in the back.” In the yard, two officers smelled a foul odor near a recycling bin. One officer tipped it over, and the lid opened enough for police to see a human hand wrapped in black plastic. Derrick Crawford’s body was inside, covered in black garbage bags. Emergency personnel pronounced him dead at the scene. The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled the death a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds.
The timeline police described runs from May 9 to May 17, but much of what happened in between has not been made public. Investigators say Crawford told them he wrapped his uncle’s body in black trash bags and placed it in the recycling bin after the shooting. Police have not said how soon after the gunfire the body was moved, whether anyone helped move it or whether anyone else entered the home in the following days. A woman who also lived there, identified in reports as Derrick Crawford’s mother, told investigators she was unaware of the killing. She said relatives had been looking for Derrick Crawford for about a week.
Police have said the alleged conflict began with words and money. In his interview, Crawford said Derrick Crawford made an insulting comment that made him angry, according to records. He also told detectives he resented his uncle borrowing most of his money, police said. The affidavit summaries describe Crawford saying the comment caused him to “black out.” They do not include a statement from Derrick Crawford, and police have not released any independent witness account of the exchange. The public record therefore presents the motive through the suspect’s reported explanation, while leaving unknown the full history between the two men.
The home’s East Side setting drew local attention after the arrest, but police have released only limited neighborhood detail. The address was reported as being in the 100 block or 140 block of Sterling Street, depending on the outlet summarizing police records. Local reports described the area as East Side or Southeast Side, and Law and Crime identified it as the Colosseum Willow Park neighborhood. Those differences do not change the core police account, which places the incident at a Sterling Street residence in San Antonio. A neighbor later told a television station off camera that he noticed an odor and thought something was wrong. Reporters who approached the home after the arrest did not get a public response from a woman at the door.
Crawford was arrested and booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center. Reports said he was first booked on abuse of a corpse before upgraded murder charges were filed. A judge set bond at $250,000. Police have described the case as a murder investigation tied to the shooting death of Derrick Crawford, while some reports said Crawford stood accused of two counts of murder. The court record will be the controlling account as prosecutors file or amend charges. No public trial date, plea or indictment details were included in the records summarized in initial reports.
The case now depends on how investigators and prosecutors connect the scene pieces. The living room may show where Derrick Crawford was shot. The bedroom may hold the gun, casings and phone police say Crawford identified. The backyard bin shows where officers found the body after the 911 call. Together, those locations form the public outline of the case. The unanswered questions concern the delay, the exact handling of the body, any forensic testing and whether other witnesses or records add to the timeline.
The next public record is expected to come through court filings that clarify the charges, hearing dates and evidence prosecutors plan to use. Aquiminee Crawford remained in custody on $250,000 bond while Bexar County authorities continued the case.
Author note: Last updated June 19, 2026.