We make a lot of jokes about security guards and funny movies too. Then we have examples of selfless duty by men like Lyle Kastner.
He died doing his job to try and protect the bingo hall employees.
By any measure of the term he is a hero.
May he rest in peace.
His murder makes this a capital murder. Find him and prosecute him to the fullest measure.
Security guard fatally shot in robbery outside bingo hall
Lyle R. Kastner always made sure employees at I35 Bingo made it to their cars safely.
On Saturday around 10:30 p.m., the 57-year-old security guard was shot and killed doing just that — walking the manager to her car.
“He was a very good security guard,” said Kevin Keller, the bingo hall owner. “He was kind, conscientious. Not everyone knew his name but everyone knew his face.”
Kastner had been doing security at the bingo hall in the 6800 block of Interstate 35 for about a year as an employee at a private security firm.
“He took the employees’ safety very seriously,” Keller said.
It was after closing time when Kastner escorted the manager to her car. As he walked away, a man who had been hiding underneath the vehicle emerged, pointed a gun at the manager and demanded her belongings.
Kastner turned back to check on the woman because he hadn’t heard her car start. He saw the man holding the woman at gunpoint.
Kastner, who is commissioned to carry a firearm as a security guard, was shot when he told the man to drop his weapon, according to San Antonio Police Department spokesman Joe Rios.
The shooter ran away carrying the woman’s purse and Kastner’s .40-caliber handgun, police said. Police recovered the woman’s purse later Saturday night while searching for the shooter. If caught, he faces a charge of capital murder, which is punishable by the death penalty, Rios said.
Keller spoke with his manager Sunday, and said that, while not physically injured, she was devastated by the night’s events.
“She’s not doing well today,” he said.
