Jordan Eli Bocanegra, age 19, was a son and a brother whose family described him as respectful, caring, and full of light. Born in San Antonio on July 1, 2005, he “went to be with the Lord” on June 22, 2025, leaving behind his parents, Julio and Tanya, and a large circle of siblings and relatives who gathered to share memories and plan services in the days that followed.
As loved ones prepared for a rosary and funeral mass, they spoke of the 19-year-old's warmth, his humor, and the way he made people feel seen.
Late that Sunday morning, Jordan Eli Bocanegra, age 19 and male, was in his vehicle on San Antonio's East Side when gunfire erupted near the intersection of East Commerce and North Gevers. Family members said he had stopped for gas and was heading back toward Hondo after visiting an older brother. After he was shot inside the car, Jordan Eli Bocanegra, age 19 and male, managed to drive about a block before crashing near East Commerce and South Polaris, where police later found him deceased in the vehicle. The medical examiner determined he died of a gunshot wound to the head, and investigators treated the case as a homicide.
Detectives quickly developed a suspect. Witness accounts and early reports led San Antonio police to identify 29-year-old Mark Criollo as the shooter, and an arrest warrant for murder was issued. Street Crimes officers and covert detectives located him at a home on Potomac Street, where a perimeter was set and SWAT was called in. After an overnight standoff that stretched past 1:30 a.m. on Monday, officers took Criollo into custody. Jordan Eli Bocanegra, age 19 and male, was publicly identified by the medical examiner as the victim the next morning.
In the days that followed, friends and family carried candles to the corner of East Commerce and Polaris, turning the crash site into a memorial. They released balloons, sang Happy Birthday for the 20th he would never celebrate, and set teddy bears and flowers by the curb, sharing how Jordan Eli Bocanegra, age 19 and male, loved to make people laugh. At a vigil, relatives recalled prior disputes with the suspect, a former neighbor the family said they had moved to avoid, even as they focused on honoring the young man they lost. Court records showed Criollo jailed on a murder charge with bond set at $200,000, and the family raised funds to lay Jordan Eli Bocanegra, age 19 and male, to rest.
The killing of Jordan Eli Bocanegra, age 19 and male, was one among the city's summer gun violence cases, logged by tracking projects and local media as a late-morning shooting at the 2200 block of East Commerce. But for those who knew him, it was the silencing of an irrepressible presence — a young man remembered at a street-corner shrine, at a church service, and in the stories his family told as they waited for justice to run its course.
