You Were Held at Gunpoint in San Antonio. You Don’t Have to Shake It Off.
Somewhere over Texas, on a flight home after the Knicks beat the Spurs in five, you probably closed your eyes and saw the white pickup truck’s window again. Maybe you saw the driver’s grin before the barrel. Maybe you saw nothing — just the moment your body decided whether to run, freeze, or both. Maybe you have told no one. Maybe you told everyone. Maybe you have already told yourself it was nothing, that nobody got shot, that you walked away, that you “shook it off,” and that whatever happened in San Antonio stays in San Antonio.
We are going to tell you something a lot of people have not told you yet, and we are going to tell you plainly, because you deserve plain talk after what you saw.
Being held at gunpoint in Texas is not a minor inconvenience. It is not a “weird thing that happened.” Under Texas law, pointing a firearm at an identifiable stranger is aggravated assault — a felony of the second degree, punishable by two to twenty years in a Texas prison. The driver who pointed that gun at you and laughed was committing a felony in your presence. Texas law also gives you a civil case — a lawsuit for money — against that driver, and in many situations against other parties whose failures made the assault possible. You do not have to have been shot to recover. You do not have to be a Texas resident. You do not have to have called the police that night. And you do not have to shake it off alone.
This page is written for you — and for the friend who is searching this for you at 2 a.m. — by a Texas trial team that has spent twenty-seven years taking on defendants who thought they would never be held accountable. If, after reading this, you decide to call us, the consultation is free, confidential, and costs you nothing. There is no fee unless we win. We speak Spanish fully. The number is at the bottom of this page. But first, the truth about what Texas law actually says.
What the New York Post Reported — and Why That Article Matters to Your Case
On June 17, 2026, the New York Post published an article describing what happened on the night of Saturday, June 13, 2026, in San Antonio, Texas. According to that article, a Knicks fan journalist traveling to Game 5 of the NBA Finals witnessed an unidentified man in a white pickup truck pointing a firearm at two Knicks fans who were crossing a street near the Frost Bank Center and the Riverwalk. The article reports that the two victims “briefly held” the driver accountable for “what the driver thought was a humorous little gunpoint incident” — and then “shook it off,” declining to pursue the matter at the time. The Knicks won the game 94-90, claiming the championship.
That article is more than a news story. It is evidence. It documents (1) that the incident occurred, (2) that the driver laughed while pointing the firearm — the conduct that makes punitive damages available in Texas, (3) the date, location, and approximate setting, and (4) the existence of at least one percipient witness, the journalist himself, who can testify to what he saw. The article also gives our investigation a starting point: a white pickup truck, in the vicinity of the Frost Bank Center and the Riverwalk, on the night of June 13, 2026.
The driver is not named in the article. We will get into how we identify him below. First, the law, because the law is what makes this worth doing.
Pointing a Firearm at Strangers Is a Second-Degree Felony in Texas — and That Felony Is Your Civil Case
“A person commits an offense if the person commits an assault as defined in § 22.01 and the person: (1) causes serious bodily injury to another, or (2) uses or exhibits a deadly weapon in the course of the assault.” — Texas Penal Code § 22.02(a) (Aggravated Assault), punishable as a felony of the second degree.
A “deadly weapon” under Texas law includes a firearm. The statute does not require the gun to be loaded, fired, or even pointed for any particular length of time. It requires only that the person “uses or exhibits” the weapon “in the course of the assault.” Pointing a firearm at two strangers while laughing at them satisfies that statute. The driver in the white pickup truck committed aggravated assault — a second-degree felony.
Texas law gives you two parallel paths after that felony. The first is the criminal path: the Bexar County District Attorney’s office, or in some circumstances the Texas Rangers, can charge the driver with aggravated assault. The victim’s participation in the criminal case is real but limited — the State of Texas, not the victim, decides whether to prosecute. The second path is the civil path, and that one belongs to you. You — not the State, not the police, not the District Attorney — file a civil lawsuit against the driver, and you can recover money for what was done to you even if the driver is never criminally charged.
That distinction matters. You do not need a conviction to win a civil assault case. You do not need the District Attorney to file charges. You do not need the police to have taken a report. The civil case is yours to bring, on your timeline (within the statute of limitations), with the evidence you can gather — and we will get into evidence in detail below. The criminal case and the civil case move on parallel tracks and can support each other: a criminal conviction makes the civil case easier, and a credible civil case can pressure a prosecutor who is on the fence.
Yes, You Can Sue Even If You Weren’t Physically Injured — Here’s How Texas Law Treats the Fear Alone
This is the question every assault-with-a-firearm victim asks us, and it is the question the insurance company will use to try to make you give up. “You weren’t hurt. You don’t have a case.” That is not Texas law. Here is what Texas law actually says.
Texas recognizes civil assault as an intentional tort independent of criminal prosecution. The elements are simple: the defendant acted with intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact (or apprehension of such contact), and the plaintiff was in fact placed in apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact. When a man in a white pickup truck points a firearm at you and laughs, every element is met. You saw the gun. You understood what a gun could do. You were, for those seconds, in apprehension of death or grave bodily injury. That is the assault.
Texas also recognizes a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED). The standard is high — the conduct must be “extreme and outrageous” and “utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” as the Texas Supreme Court held in Boyles v. Kerr, 855 S.W.2d 593 (Tex. 1993). Texas courts disfavor standalone IIED claims, especially when there is no physical injury. But pointing a firearm at strangers while laughing is the kind of conduct the IIED standard was written for. It is extreme. It is outrageous. A jury in Bexar County — even a conservative, pro-Second-Amendment jury — can recognize that there is a difference between carrying a firearm lawfully and using a firearm to terrorize pedestrians for sport.
The modified impact rule is the technical hurdle. Texas common law requires that an emotional-distress claim be tied to some “impact” — physical injury, physical contact, or a threat of imminent physical injury. The threat of imminent physical injury element is the one that matters here. A man pointing a gun at you is not making a vague threat of some future harm. He is creating the apprehension of death in the next second. Texas courts have repeatedly held that the threat of imminent physical injury from a firearm satisfies the impact rule. The assault itself — the pointing of the firearm — is the impact.
What you can recover without physical injury is real: the fear you experienced in the moment; the intrusive memories that follow; the sleep disturbance; the loss of enjoyment of ordinary activities; the hypervigilance that comes after a stranger has shown you how cheaply he values your life; and, in serious cases, a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that follows you for months or years. We will detail the damages below.
The Driver Is Not the Only Defendant: Frost Bank Center, the Parking Operator, and the Hotel All Owe You a Duty
When the driver is the only defendant on the page, the case is fragile — because the driver may be hard to find, may be judgment-proof, or may be defended by a single low-limit auto policy. Texas law gives us additional defendants in cases like this, and they are typically the ones with the actual money.
Texas landowners and business operators owe invitees — that includes paying customers at a sporting event — a duty to use ordinary care to protect against foreseeable criminal acts of third parties. The Frost Bank Center is the home of the San Antonio Spurs. It hosts NBA playoff games, including the NBA Finals. The operator — ASM Global, the venue management company — has a heightened duty on nights like June 13, 2026: a championship-clinching game with thousands of visiting fans, hostile fan energy, heavy post-game foot traffic, and well-documented patterns of post-game violence around major sporting events. ASM Global either knew, or should have known, that the area around the arena — the pedestrian crossings, the parking lots, the routes back to nearby hotels — needed elevated security on this exact night.
Negligent security is its own theory of liability in Texas. To win, we have to prove: (1) a duty of reasonable care to protect against foreseeable criminal conduct; (2) a breach of that duty; (3) causation; and (4) damages. The foreseeability piece is what makes this case actionable. A championship game. A visiting-fan crowd. Foot traffic between parking, the arena, and the Riverwalk hotels. Post-game traffic jams. Known patterns of post-event weapons complaints logged by SAPD. A white pickup truck able to drive up to a crosswalk, point a firearm, and drive away. The absence of barriers, the absence of visible patrol, the absence of lighting — those are the things a negligent-security expert will testify were missing, and they are the things a jury will understand.
Other potential defendants: the parking operator where the driver parked, if the operator had a duty to screen vehicles or monitor the lot. The hotel near the crossing if it had contractual security obligations. The City of San Antonio if it failed to provide adequate lighting or traffic control at a known pedestrian crossing during a known high-risk event. And — and this is often overlooked — the driver himself, if his employer is identified. Pickup trucks in Texas are frequently commercial work vehicles. They are provided by employers, insured under commercial auto policies, and driven on errands within the scope of employment. If the driver was on the clock, his employer is on the hook under respondeat superior. We run the plate, we pull the insurance, we depose the driver, and we find out who else was in that truck’s orbit.
What Your Case Is Actually Worth: Damages in a Texas Assault Case With No Physical Injury
The honest answer first: a “shaken off” gunpointing case with no physical injury is not a seven-figure case. Texas juries, especially in Bexar County, are skeptical of large verdicts for emotional injury alone. The case-value range that fits these facts is roughly $15,000 to $250,000 per victim. That range is not the ceiling — it is the floor that honest experience supports. What pushes the case up the ladder depends on what we can prove.
Economic damages are minimal here. No medical bills, no lost wages, no documented physical injury that kept you out of work. The compensation conversation centers on non-economic damages: severe emotional distress; fear; loss of enjoyment of life; intrusive memories; sleep disturbance; the specific PTSD symptoms that can follow a gunpointing even when no shot is fired. If a treating psychiatrist documents PTSD — three to six months of therapy, a prescription for sertraline or prazosin, a clinical diagnosis using the DSM-5 criteria — the value moves up the range. The symptoms have to be documented by a professional, not just described in a demand letter.
Punitive damages are squarely available and are often where the real value lives in a case like this. Texas law allows punitive damages when the plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with gross negligence, malice, or fraud. A driver who pointed a firearm at strangers and laughed while doing it has acted with malice. The laugh — the dehumanizing amusement — is the evidence a Bexar County jury will recognize. Punitive multipliers in Texas assault cases routinely reach two to four times the compensatory damages. On a $50,000 compensatory verdict, punitive damages can add another $100,000 to $200,000. That is how a “no physical injury” case reaches $250,000.
The negligent-security theory against the Frost Bank Center is the deep pocket. If ASM Global failed to provide reasonable security on a championship night, the venue’s commercial general liability policy responds. Verdicts and settlements in negligent-security cases against venues with insurance routinely exceed $500,000, and cases with serious emotional injury can reach seven figures. Whether we can attach that pocket depends on what discovery shows about ASM Global’s prior incident reports, security staffing, lighting audits, and the absence (or presence) of prior similar incidents on nights exactly like June 13, 2026.
What we will not promise: a specific dollar amount, a guaranteed verdict, or a particular settlement figure. Cases are valued on facts and proof, not on promises. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
Punitive Damages in Texas Assault Cases — The “Laughing While Pointing a Gun” Factor
“The amount of punitive damages must be based on reason and justice taking into account all the circumstances, including the nature and enormity of the wrong.” — Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.010.
Punitive damages in Texas serve two purposes the statute names explicitly: to punish the wrongdoer and to deter others from the same conduct. The amount has to be grounded in reason and justice. The clearest evidence of the malice Texas requires is the laugh. The journalist who witnessed the incident described the driver as “laughing” during what the article called the “humorous little gunpoint incident.” A man who points a firearm at strangers and finds it funny has crossed the line from negligence into malice. He made a choice. He knew what a gun pointed at a person means. He chose to do it anyway, and he enjoyed it.
The Texas Supreme Court has made clear that the worse the danger the defendant ignored, the more likely punitive damages are appropriate. The danger ignored here was the most serious danger a human being can present to another: the choice to kill. That is the clearest case for punitive damages Texas law allows.
The defense will argue that the driver was drunk, that he was celebrating, that he did not mean it, that no one got hurt. None of that answers the malice question. Drunk celebrants who point firearms at strangers are committing aggravated assault, and the celebration does not reduce the malice — it amplifies it. We will use the laugh in opening statement, in closing argument, and in every demand letter we send.
The 30-Day Evidence Clock: Surveillance, Cell Phone Video, and Witness Memories Are Dying Right Now
This is the section of this page we most need you to read. The evidence that proves your case is disappearing on a clock. The clock started the moment that white pickup truck drove away. We are not being dramatic — we are being accurate about how evidence works in 2026.
Frost Bank Center exterior surveillance and parking-lot cameras. Sports venues run digital video systems that overwrite on rolling windows of 14 to 30 days. The June 13, 2026 footage is still on the system — barely. A preservation letter and subpoena must reach ASM Global’s legal department within 72 hours to guarantee the footage is held. Without that letter, the system may overwrite the entire night as early as June 27, 2026 — fourteen days after the incident. With that letter, the footage is preserved through litigation.
San Antonio Riverwalk business and city traffic cameras. The crossing where the incident occurred runs through a corridor covered by City of San Antonio traffic cameras, TxDOT traffic management cameras, and private business surveillance from the surrounding hotels, restaurants, and parking facilities. These cameras typically retain footage 14 to 30 days. SAPD open-records requests can pull some of this. We issue those requests the day you call. We send direct preservation letters to the businesses we can identify. The clock is the same.
Cell phone video from the two victims, the journalist, and other Knicks fans in the area. This is where most of the winning evidence lives. A phone video captures the vehicle, the license plate (or part of it), the driver’s face, the gun, and the laugh. iPhone video can be auto-deleted at 30 days. Google Photos compression destroys original metadata. Phones get lost on flights, get replaced, get dropped in toilets. We send a litigation hold letter to you within 24 hours of your call, instructing you exactly what to do and what not to do with your phone. We work with a forensic imaging vendor to extract a certified copy of the relevant video and metadata before it can be lost. If there were other Knicks fans on the crossing with their phones out — and at a championship game, there usually are — their videos are equally perishable. We need to find those witnesses now.
The journalist’s New York Post photographs and notes. The journalist is a percipient witness. His testimony is decisive. We issue a litigation hold to him and to the New York Post within the first week. The article itself is a permanent record, but the underlying photographs, video, and field notes may be subject to the same retention policies as any news organization’s archive.
Google and Apple Maps timeline data for the two victims and the journalist. Maps timeline data pins your exact crossing location, your time of day, and your proximity to the pickup truck. The data is held on your personal device or in your account for 30 to 90 days without active preservation. We need to capture it now.
Social media posts by the two victims and Spurs/Knicks fan communities. Fan-forum posts, Reddit threads, TikTok clips, Instagram stories — these all age out. Authors delete. Web-preservation services like Pagefreezer can capture public posts and freeze the metadata within days. We start that process the week you call.
SAPD incident report (if any). The article reports that the victims “shook it off” and declined to pursue. That likely means no report was filed. Texas does not require a police report to file a civil case, but a delayed report is still valuable for documentation. We can pursue a delayed report through SAPD and request any incident reports filed by other witnesses who saw what you saw.
The week you spend reading this page is the week the evidence ages. The day you call us is the day the preservation letters go out.
The Insurance Playbook: What the Driver’s Carrier Will Do to You in the First 72 Hours
If the driver is identified and his auto insurance carrier gets to you before we do, here is what is coming. Lupe Peña, who spent years inside a national insurance defense firm before he joined our side, has seen every one of these plays run a thousand times. He now runs the playbook in reverse.
Play 1: The friendly check-in call. Within 48 to 72 hours of the report, an adjuster from the driver’s auto liability carrier (often Great West Casualty, Old Republic, or National Interstate — the carriers that write Texas personal-auto and commercial-light-truck policies) calls you. The voice is warm. The script is rehearsed. “We’re so sorry this happened. We just want to check on you.” The call is recorded. The adjuster’s goal is to get you to say “I’m fine,” “it wasn’t that bad,” “I don’t really remember the gun,” or anything else they can play back at trial. The counter: do not give a recorded statement. Refer the carrier to us. We will handle every conversation.
Play 2: The fast settlement check. Before your PTSD diagnosis lands, before your treating psychiatrist has documented the sleep disturbance and the intrusive memories, a check arrives in the mail for a few thousand dollars with a release printed on the back. The release says you accept the money in full settlement of all claims arising from the incident. Once you sign, your case is over — no matter what your symptoms become in the next six months. The counter: do not cash the check. Do not sign the release. We negotiate. We wait for the medical record to mature.
Play 3: The medical-records fishing expedition. Once you sign a release or hire a lawyer, the carrier wants your entire medical history. They will pull records going back a decade to find a prior anxiety diagnosis, a prior depression treatment, or anything they can use to argue that your symptoms are not caused by the gunpointing. The counter: we control the records release. We provide what is responsive and protect what is not.
Play 4: The “you weren’t really hurt” letter. Months into the case, the defense sends a letter claiming that without physical injury, Texas law does not support your claim. They cite the modified impact rule and try to push you toward a low settlement. The counter: we cite back. We walk them through the IIED standard, the assault tort, and the impact rule’s exception for threats of imminent physical injury from a firearm. We file suit if they do not engage.
Play 5: The venue’s defense that “we couldn’t have foreseen this.” When we serve ASM Global and the Frost Bank Center, their attorneys will argue no prior similar incidents, no duty to provide security beyond what they provided, and assumption of risk by attending a sporting event. The counter: discovery pulls prior incident reports, prior SAPD logs, prior security staffing records, prior lighting audits. If they had a similar incident in the last three years and did nothing, we will find it.
How We Actually Build a Case Like This: From Preservation Letter to Jury Verdict
Cases are not built in the demand letter. They are built in the first week. Here is the chronological walk of how a gunpointing assault case moves through our office, from the moment you call to the resolution of the case.
Week one — preservation and intake. The day you call, we issue litigation hold letters to you, the journalist, and the New York Post. We send preservation letters to ASM Global, the Frost Bank Center, the City of San Antonio’s traffic management division, and the surrounding businesses we can identify from the crossing location. We open SAPD open-records requests for any incident reports in the area on June 13, 2026. We begin the medical intake, connecting you with a treating psychiatrist experienced in trauma cases for evaluation and documentation.
Weeks two through four — driver identification. The white pickup truck is the thread. We pull the limited plate information available. We coordinate with SAPD on any BOLO or incident report. We search public social media for Knicks fan communities, Spurs fan communities, and Reddit threads that surfaced the incident. We use private investigators when needed. The driver’s identity emerges, or it does not — but either way, the case is preserved and ready to file when it does.
Months two through six — medical development. PTSD diagnoses do not appear overnight. They emerge over three to six months of therapy, medication, and clinical observation. We connect you with providers who know how to document for litigation purposes — not because the documentation is manufactured, but because treating providers who understand trauma know what to record and how to record it. The medical record matures into the proof of damages.
Months four through nine — discovery. Once suit is filed in Bexar County district court, we serve written discovery on the driver and on ASM Global. We depose the security director, the general manager, and the security personnel on duty the night of June 13, 2026. We pull prior incident reports. We pull staffing logs and lighting audits. We pull the venue’s training records for its security contractors.
Months nine through twelve — mediation and resolution. Texas assault cases with documented emotional injury resolve well at mediation when the plaintiff’s treatment narrative is solid. We mediate at nine to twelve months, with a mediator experienced in premises-liability and intentional-tort cases. If the defense refuses to engage meaningfully, we prepare for trial.
Trial — Bexar County, Texas. Voir dire in a Bexar County assault case is its own challenge. We probe for concealed-carry experience, attitudes toward “soft” emotional injuries, and the ability to award damages against someone who pointed a gun but never fired. We lead with the laugh in opening statement. We lead with the laugh in closing argument. We let the jury see the man who pointed the gun and the grin on his face, and we let the jury do what Texas juries do when they see malice: punish it.
The First 72 Hours After You Read This Page: A Step-by-Step Roadmap
If you were one of the two victims, or if you witnessed what happened and are reading this page trying to decide what to do, here is what the first three days look like.
Hour zero. Do not delete anything. Do not send your phone video to anyone except us. Do not post about the incident on social media. Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance adjuster, no matter how friendly the voice sounds. Do not cash any check that arrives in the mail. Do not contact the driver directly.
Hour 24. Call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. The consultation is free and confidential. We will ask you what happened, when, where, who else was there, and what evidence you have. We will send you a litigation hold letter by email within the hour. We will connect you with a treating provider if you are not already seeing one.
Hour 48. Our preservation letters go out to the venue, the city, and the relevant businesses. Our open-records requests go out to SAPD. We coordinate with the journalist who witnessed the incident to preserve his testimony.
Hour 72. We begin driver identification. We open a forensic imaging hold on your phone. We begin the medical record with a trauma-experienced provider.
What you do not do in the first 72 hours matters as much as what you do. You do not minimize. You do not rationalize. You do not “shake it off.” You preserve.
Why Texas Plaintiffs Trust Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm
This page is written in the voice of our Texas trial team. We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We have been taking on defendants who thought they would never face accountability since 1998.
Ralph P. Manginello is our managing partner. He has spent twenty-seven years in courtrooms, including federal court, and has tried cases against some of the largest corporate defendants in the country. Before he was a lawyer, he was a journalist — a trained storyteller. Before journalism, he was the starting point guard on the 1989 New England Prep School championship team at Cheshire Academy, and he was inducted into the Cheshire Academy Athletic Hall of Fame in 2021. The storytelling, the competitiveness, and the twenty-seven years are all in how he tries a case. Our firm has recovered more than $50 million for Texas families since 1998, including participation in the BP Texas City refinery explosion litigation. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
Lupe Peña is our associate attorney who leads the fight on insurance-defense tactics. Before he joined our side, Lupe spent years inside a national insurance defense firm — the same kinds of firms that will defend the driver in the white pickup truck and the venue that failed to protect you. Lupe sat in the rooms where adjusters decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims exactly like yours. He knows the Colossus-style settlement software, the recorded-statement scripts, the medical-records fishing expeditions, and the “you weren’t really hurt” letters. He now runs that playbook in reverse, and he does it for you in English or in Spanish. We serve families fully in Spanish — Hablamos Español.
The consultation is free, confidential, and available 24/7. There is no fee unless we win. If we take your case, we advance the costs. If we do not recover, you owe us nothing. The number is 1-888-ATTY-911.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it too late if I flew home to New York already?
No. Texas law gives you two years from the date of the incident to file a civil assault lawsuit under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. You do not need to be a Texas resident to sue in Texas. The fact that you flew home does not end your case — but the surveillance video at the Frost Bank Center and the cell phone video on your phone do have shorter clocks, which is why we want to talk to you this week, not this year.
Can I sue if I wasn’t physically injured?
Yes. Texas law allows a civil assault claim based on the threat of imminent physical injury alone. Pointing a firearm at an identifiable stranger satisfies the modified impact rule because it creates the apprehension of imminent death or grave bodily injury. You can also pursue a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress under the standard set by Boyles v. Kerr. The case is harder to prove without physical injury, but it is provable, especially with documented emotional injury and the malice shown by the laugh.
How long do I have to file a lawsuit in Texas?
Two years from the date of the incident under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. That deadline applies to both assault and IIED claims. For a case arising on June 13, 2026, the deadline is June 13, 2028. The deadline is strict — Texas courts do not often extend it — but the deadline is the long clock. The short clocks are the 14- to 30-day surveillance retention windows and the 30-day phone-video auto-delete cycle, which is why we move this week.
What if I can’t identify the driver?
The driver can almost always be identified. License plate readers at SAPD, TxDOT traffic cameras at the intersection, the Frost Bank Center surveillance system, the journalist’s photographs, and other witnesses’ phone videos all carry fragments that lead to the driver. Our office uses investigators to trace vehicles through Texas DMV records once we have a partial plate, a vehicle description, or a time-and-location window. “We can’t find him” is the defense’s hope — it is rarely the reality. And even if direct identification takes longer, the negligent-security case against the Frost Bank Center and the venue operator does not depend on identifying the driver at all.
Will my case be public?
Texas court filings are public records. Civil lawsuits filed in Bexar County district court are accessible through the county clerk’s office and through online docket systems. The case will not be on the front page of the newspaper because it is a civil case, not a criminal case, but it will be searchable. We discuss privacy considerations with every client up front and we use protective orders when appropriate to limit what is publicly filed.
Do I have to go back to San Antonio for court?
Likely not for every hearing. Texas civil procedure allows out-of-state parties to participate in depositions by remote video, and many pre-trial hearings can be handled by your Texas attorney without your personal appearance. If the case goes to trial in Bexar County, you will need to be there — that is non-negotiable. We coordinate the trial schedule with your work and life commitments well in advance so the disruption is planned, not surprised.
What if the driver was never charged criminally?
That does not affect your civil case. Criminal charges are brought by the State of Texas through the Bexar County District Attorney’s office. Your civil case is yours to bring. You do not need a conviction to win. You do not need charges to be filed. You need evidence, and the evidence is the same whether or not the DA ever files. In fact, a civil case can sometimes proceed when a criminal case cannot — the burden of proof is lower (preponderance of evidence rather than beyond a reasonable doubt), and the case is not subject to the same prosecutorial discretion.
How much is my case worth?
Honest answer: a “shaken off” gunpointing case with no physical injury is valued in a range from $15,000 to $250,000 per victim. The range expands substantially if (a) a treating psychiatrist documents PTSD with three to six months of therapy and medication, (b) punitive damages attach against the driver (the laugh makes malice provable), or (c) the Frost Bank Center is found liable for negligent security (deep pocket, $500,000 to seven figures). No lawyer can tell you the exact number without seeing your medical records, your evidence, and the specific facts. What we can tell you is that we will pursue every available theory — driver, owner, employer, venue — to maximize the recovery.
What if I already told my story to friends or posted about it on social media?
That is normal and it is not disqualifying. What matters is what happens from this point forward. Do not delete existing posts — the defense will argue spoliation. Do not post anything new about the case. Do not discuss the case with anyone except your attorney and your treating providers. We can work with what is already public; we cannot undo what is posted tomorrow.
Does it matter that I’m from out of state?
No. Texas courts handle cases filed by out-of-state plaintiffs every day. San Antonio is a tourist destination — millions of visitors pass through every year — and Texas law is built to handle claims by visitors injured in Texas. Venue will be Bexar County because that is where the incident occurred and where most of the evidence and witnesses sit. The two-year Texas deadline applies regardless of where you live.
What if I was intoxicated when this happened?
Texas is a 51%-bar modified comparative negligence state under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001. If you were 51% or more at fault, you recover nothing. Being intoxicated at a sporting event is not, by itself, comparative fault — it does not cause a stranger to point a gun at you. The driver’s aggravated assault is the cause. If the defense can point to specific conduct on your part that contributed (for example, you swung at the truck, you chased it, you threw something at it), there may be an argument, but the threshold for “more than 50% at fault” in a gunpointing case is very high.
How much does it cost to hire you?
Nothing up front. We work on contingency. There is no fee unless we win. The consultation is free. The costs of litigation — filing fees, deposition transcripts, expert witnesses — are advanced by our firm and reimbursed out of any recovery. If we do not recover, you owe us nothing. The contingency percentage and the cost structure are spelled out in writing in our engagement letter before you sign anything. We also serve Texas families fully in Spanish — Hablamos Español.
The page you just read is not legal advice for your specific case. It is legal information. For advice that fits your situation, you need a confidential consultation with a Texas-licensed attorney. That consultation is free, and the number is 1-888-ATTY-911. The evidence clock is running. The driver’s laugh is the proof. The venue’s duty is the deep pocket. And the two-year Texas deadline is the long clock that protects you — but only if you start now.