Best Deadbolt
By Alia Malik, San Antonio Express-News
SAN ANTONIO — The last time Zachary Manciu’s mother ever heard from him, he was postponing their planned Tuesday dinner together for the next night.
Manciu, 19, had stayed late at his job loading and unloading cargo at an East Side warehouse. He was going to instead take a shower and play video games with a friend, Kelly Towner said.
But somehow, in the hours after that conversation, Manciu instead ended up fatally wounded in a shootout believed to have occurred during a robbery of an apartment he did not live in. Details of the double slaying have been slow to emerge, but authorities have said they do not believe Manciu was one of the suspected intruders.
He died early Wednesday morning at University Hospital.
“He’s my oldest and my only son,” Towner said. “It’s very devastating, and it’s just very tragic. We’re heartbroken and just really hurting right now.”
At about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, at least two people kicked in the door of an apartment in the Avistar at Chase Hill apartment complex near the University of Texas at San Antonio, according to police. The intruders demanded property from the people inside the apartment, police said.
When one of the intruders then tried to kick in a bedroom door, one of the people inside the apartment opened fire with a shotgun, prompting an intruder to fire back with a handgun, police said. Police have not elaborated on who wielded the weapons during the shootout.
One of the alleged intruders also died, police said. The medical examiner’s office identified him Thursday as Mikhael Moore, 20, who sustained multiple shotgun wounds. Another suspected home invader left the scene and remains at large, police said.
Towner and her husband, James Towner, said Thursday that they have heard speculation through Manciu’s friends that he was called over to help the residents during the home invasion.
Kelly Towner did not watch or read the news Wednesday morning before she left for work. Then she got a call from Manciu’s roommate, whom he lived with near Shavano Park.
Manciu hadn’t come home and his roommate had heard of the shooting. He also knew Manciu had friends in the Avistar complex, she said. The Towners went to a police substation, where they were told that Manciu was one of the dead.
Manciu was the type of person who would have gone to the apartment to help his friends if they were in trouble, James Towner said.
“He was always answering the calls of others,” James Towner said.
Manciu was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he will be buried. His mother and James Towner moved to the San Antonio area after they married, when Manciu was 4 years old.
He attended Brandeis High School, where he played football and joined the ROTC. Since graduating last year, he has worked at the warehouse during the week and delivered pizzas on weekends.
“This was a kid who had a work ethic,” James Towner said. “Nothing was handed to him.”
Manciu loved the outdoors, his family said. He spent time hanging out with friends at Canyon Lake and off-roading in a big truck, which it pained him to recently sell.
His dream was to buy a new truck with a wireline crane. Another dream of his, Kelly Towner said, was to start college next summer, possibly to become a teacher.
Manciu was devoted to his two younger sisters, Kelly Towner said. He often came over and jumped on a trampoline with them. Manciu was good with children in general, she said.
“They are just really drawn to him and really enjoy hanging out with him,” Kelly Towner said.
Manciu made sure his kindness and generosity would last beyond his life, electing to be an organ donor when he got his driver’s license, his mother said.
“We’re grateful that, in this tragedy, some people can benefit from it,” she said.
