Elizabeth Mercedes Villalobos, a 28-year-old Hispanic/Latina woman from San Antonio, died in the early morning hours of August 14, 2025, after a shooting inside the Encore SoFlo apartment complex at 326 South Flores Street in downtown San Antonio, near East César E. Chávez Boulevard. Police were called shortly after 4:30 a.m. for what was initially reported as an accidental shooting.
Inside a ground-floor apartment, officers found Villalobos lying on a bed with a gunshot wound to her torso or abdominal area. Emergency medical personnel pronounced her dead at the scene, and the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed that the fatal injury was a gunshot wound to the torso. Investigators remained at the apartment for much of the morning, collecting evidence and removing several firearms, including long guns.
The only other person reported to have been inside the apartment when the shooting occurred was Joseph Chacon, who was later identified by authorities as being in a relationship with Villalobos. When police arrived, Chacon opened the door in an extremely distraught state. He was immediately detained while homicide investigators began trying to determine how the rifle had discharged. Early police accounts suggested the pair had been handling or playing with the firearm and that the rifle had been tossed into the air before it fired. Some initial reporting also connected the activity to the filming of content for social media, although San Antonio police later backed away from that portion of the preliminary account, leaving the precise reason they were handling the weapon less certain.
According to the account Chacon gave investigators, he and Villalobos had been handling a rifle when he threw it into the air. Chacon told police that Villalobos’ finger became caught on the trigger as the weapon came down, causing it to discharge. The bullet struck her in the torso. Although officers initially described the death as appearing accidental, detectives continued examining the circumstances rather than immediately closing the shooting as an accident. Police processed the apartment as a crime scene, collected the firearms and other evidence, and questioned Chacon about what had happened. Investigators publicly acknowledged that they still needed to determine whether the death was truly accidental or whether the evidence supported criminal responsibility.
Chacon was initially taken into custody for questioning and was subsequently arrested and booked into the Bexar County Jail on a manslaughter charge. The arrest represented a significant change from the earliest reports, which had described him only as a detained witness or participant in an apparent accidental discharge. By the time authorities identified him by name, police were treating his handling of the rifle as potentially serious enough to support a criminal manslaughter allegation. Public reporting on the case identified Chacon as the only person arrested or publicly named as a suspect in connection with Villalobos’ death; no additional suspect was reported.
The criminal case, however, did not immediately move toward an indictment or trial. On August 19, 2025, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office rejected the manslaughter case against Chacon pending further investigation. The decision meant prosecutors were not proceeding with the charge as it had been presented to them, while still leaving investigators able to continue developing the case and potentially submit additional evidence. The District Attorney’s Office declined to discuss the evidence in greater detail, saying only that further investigation was necessary. As a result, the arrest did not lead at that stage to a prosecution, trial, conviction or acquittal. The later public reporting located for the case did not establish that the manslaughter charge was subsequently refiled or that Chacon was indicted, tried or convicted.
Away from the investigation, Villalobos’ obituary described a life centered on family, friendships and plans for the future. She had worked for years in restaurant service while pursuing a nursing degree and enjoyed volleyball, traveling and spending time on adventures with relatives and friends. Her obituary emphasized the especially close bond she shared with her nephew Augustine and recalled her as someone whose warmth and energy were deeply felt by those around her. Those plans ended abruptly inside the downtown apartment that August morning, while the legal question of whether the fatal gunshot amounted to a prosecutable crime remained unresolved after prosecutors returned the case for additional investigation.
