A glimpse at Texas shooting suspect's past before deadly San Antonio, Austin rampage

SAN ANTONIO — It had gotten dark. Clouds filled with rain loomed overhead, threatening to wash away all their work. They were running out of time.

Daniel Hemler worked quickly, digging two feet into the earth to make way for a new swimming pool he had been hired to install. Alongside a stranger he'd recruited off the street, the small team labored past midnight that summer evening in 2019 to outpace the elements.

The longtime San Antonio contractor had been impressed by his new hired hand. He recruited the younger man after spotting him walking in the eastern Bexar County subdivision where the job site was. The stranger lived just down the road.

"It was a pretty long night, but we got it all done. Got the pool in, got the liner set up and everything, and got it all filled up with water before it started raining," Hemler recalled this week in an interview, adding he'd planned to bring in the younger man on future jobs.

But the two lost touch, Hemler said. The COVID-19 pandemic caused contracting jobs to dry up. By the time work picked up again, he had forgotten about the stranger — until this week when he heard about his arrest.

Four years after the pool job, the man, Shane James Jr., would be charged in the shooting deaths of six people; accused of killing his parents in San Antonio before driving to Austin and killing people with whom he had no known connection, police say.

Dozens of interviews, public records and court filings reviewed by the American-Statesman paint a partial picture of the man whose life seemingly crumbled after his discharge from the U.S. Army under undisclosed circumstances. James' wife, with whom he had two young children, left him. His known employment history is erratic in the years after his discharge from the Army.

People who knew or interacted with James observed the compounding circumstances wear him down in the years before the Dec. 5 shootings. Police have said he had a history of mental health issues, including an incident three months before the shootings when Bexar County sheriff's deputies were called to his home.

Dig deeper: Shane James Jr. had warrants, family violence history. He bought a gun anyway.

Whether James ever received specialized mental health care remains unclear. After bonding out of jail following an early 2022 family violence arrest, he rejected court-issued referrals for rehabilitation services, court records show.

James faces multiple capital murder charges relating to the deaths in Austin. A young mother whose last act alive — pushing a stroller carrying her 1-year-old away from gunfire — may have saved her child's life. A Guatemalan workman who was beloved and depended upon by his family in Austin and abroad. A mother-daughter duo thought to be inseparable.

Phone calls and messages to members of James' family in the weeks since the Dec. 5 shootings were not returned.

San Antonio gun range employment, military service preceded killings

Before joining the Army in the early 2010s, James briefly worked at two gun stores with shooting ranges in San Antonio, according to his public LinkedIn profile. One of the shops he listed has since closed. A manager for the second shop, called A Place to Shoot, confirmed James worked there as a range safety officer for a month and a few days.

His LinkedIn profile claims he did similar safety work at shooting ranges during his time in the Army. However, an Army spokesperson was unable to confirm those details.

James’ parents both served in the Army. His father, a servicemember of 21 years, was deployed to Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the early 1990s, later retiring in 2005 with a long list of medals and service honors at the rank of sergeant first class. His mother served for two years in the late 1980s and worked as a material storage and handling specialist.

James transferred to St. Mary's University in 2009 and graduated with a degree in philosophy in 2012, a university official confirmed. Following in his parent's footsteps, he enlisted in the Army that year.

He left western Georgia’s Fort Benning, now called Fort Moore, in the spring of 2014 after completing basic training. He was stationed at Fort Hood, now called Fort Cavazos, near Killeen, where he remained until he was discharged in August 2015.

The circumstances surrounding the end of military service are not clear. His tenure fell short of a full contract term.

Austin police said he received a general discharge as a result of “unacceptable conduct.” The Bexar County sheriff said there was "some sort of a domestic violence incident,” but did not elaborate. Bryce S. Dubee, the Army spokesperson, declined to comment, saying the Army would not provide information about the "misconduct of low-level employees or characterization of service at discharge."

Last week, Bexar County Sheriff Deputy Johnny C. Garcia, a sheriff's office spokesperson, confirmed a domestic incident involving James during his time in the Army occurred in 2014, but declined to elaborate, deferring further questions to the Army.

A list of questions to the Army's Criminal Investigation Division seeking information about any domestic incidents or arrests was not answered this week.

After discharge, James seemingly struggled to find consistent employment

By March 2015, just months before his exit from the military, James and his wife of two years ceased to live together, court records show. She filed for divorce in early 2016, kicking off months of proceedings where process servers at times struggled to find James.

Money seemingly became tight. A joint bank account, then the responsibility of James during the divorce proceedings, had overdraft fees. Regular car payments for their once-shared car fell into delinquency. By the end of 2016, a Bexar County judge held James in contempt for failing to pay months of child support payments and other shortcomings during the proceedings, court records show.

Attempts to reach his former spouse for comment were unsuccessful.

Once out of the military, James tried his hand at a number of possible careers. However, none seemed to stick for more than a few months.

In October 2015, he earned a license to sell insurance in the state of Texas, later taking a job at a financial services company with a branch in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Some months afterward, according to his public LinkedIn profile, he worked for a short period at a recruiting agency before taxiing passengers as an Uber driver until early 2017.

In June of that year, Fort Worth police arrested James on suspicion of trespassing at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. At the time, John Langevin, who tended to the popular city installation as a gardener, called the police after James did not comply with requests to leave, instead walking away to lie beside the park's holly hedges. Police, at his request, had issued James a criminal trespass warning days before.

Langevin, who is now retired, said he had many interactions with people experiencing homelessness during his time working for the city, but his brief chat with James stuck with him.

"He said he only came back to the park because God told him to," Langevin said in an interview. "When I encountered him, he wasn't drunk or belligerent. I didn't feel threatened like I did on some other occasions by people that we had problems with at the park."

"He just seemed sad and broken then," he added.

James pleaded guilty days later and received a 10-day jail sentence, court records show.

Some time afterward, James moved back to the San Antonio area with his parents at their home on Port Royal Street. At some point, he started work at a car wash within walking distance from home. A company representative confirmed he worked there until May 2022.

Neighbors who spoke to the Statesman said they would sometimes see James walking to work. Mario Aguirre, a neighborhood resident who sometimes provided security for the community, said he did not know the family well, but he said he had the impression the parents were trying to help James. Their son’s divorce appeared to be a breaking point in his struggle with mental health, he speculated.

After arrest, James rejected court referral to seek recovery programming, mental health services

In January 2022, Bexar County sheriff's deputies arrested James, charging him with misdemeanor assault against family members. His father told deputies James had broken things in the home and pushed him. The mother, who fell to the ground during the scuffle, had a "quarter size knot" on the back of her head. The sibling had injuries to her shoulder, according to an incident report.

James bonded out of jail weeks later. Included in his bond conditions was a requirement he wear a GPS-equipped ankle monitor. A judge referred him to three institutions that provide behavioral and mental health services, court records show, including Haven for Hope, one of San Antonio's largest shelters and resource hubs for people experiencing homelessness.

In a statement, Terri Behling, a Haven for Hope spokesperson, said James was screened by Haven's jail outreach staff and found to be eligible for programming. Three days before he was released on bond, James agreed to participate in recovery programming and community mental health services, according to partial county records provided by Thomas Peine, a Bexar County spokesperson.

However, the process did not get that far. When James arrived at Haven for Hope, he told a Bexar County pre-trial bond officer that "he would rather return to jail than to go to a damn shelter," court records show.

James did not return. Behling said James never enrolled nor received services at Haven for Hope.

A warrant for James' re-arrest was issued once, in addition to his apparent absconding from Haven for Hope, he cut his GPS-equipped ankle monitor, court records show. That warrant remained active for more than a year and a half, including when police say James purchased the handgun he used in the Dec. 5 shootings.

News of James' arrest after the shootings came as a shock to Hemler, the San Antonio contractor.

Hemler's parents, who for years had run an automotive shop and full-service car wash, often hired employees they had met off the street, he said. Some were down on their luck. Others were moving from job to job to make ends meet. Occasionally they were looking for a chance to prove themselves.

Hemler said James was decent, often responding with "Yes, sir," and "No, sir" when they spoke. Remarks about the divorce were bitter but brief. Recalling their conversations, Hemler described James as someone who was "sitting there at rock bottom" but still optimistic.

"I just started BS'ing with him and he seemed respectable. He was positive about things, saying he wanted to get his life together," Hemler said, recalling his first of just a few interactions with James that summer in 2019. "If I was going to give an opinion of the guy at that time, I mean, I would say he was a good dude." "But, here's one thing about human beings," he said later. "We can all hide a lot of stuff very well."

Staff writers Bianca Moreno-Paz and Serena Lin contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas shooting suspect's past before deadly San Antonio, Austin rampage