Monday, March 3, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The trick with the chips, neighbors said, was lime juice and Tabasco sauce.
A dash of each gave just the right kick to the fried snacks that kids and adults alike couldn't seem to get enough of each time the street vendor wheeled his converted gray shopping cart down the 2700 block of San Marcos Street.
A buck a bag was the usual price -- the same amount the peddler was asking for his hot cobs of corn on Sunday when he was shot once in the eye by two street thugs.
A stick of corn lay on the bloodied asphalt just below the cart's handle bar, most likely dropped when one of the assailants pulled a small handgun from his waistband and popped off the near-fatal round about 2:40 p.m. in the neighborhood near Carey Avenue and Pecos Road.
Neighbors said the victim appeared to be in his 40s, yet police, using a wallet found in his pocket, identified him as a 24-year-old Hispanic man. Authorities are withholding his name until family members are notified.
Metro Police homicide Sgt. Bill Keeton said today that investigators believe the suspects are from the same neighborhood.
He said people in the neighborhood are hesitant to speak to detectives.
The victim, whom Keeton said was believed to be an illegal alien, was on life support machines and in critical condition today at University Medical Center.
"He was apparently shot over an ear of corn," said Lt. Dennis Cobb. "Witnesses heard an argument contemporaneously with the gunfire."
A 3-year-old child playing inside a nearby wire-fenced front yard was among the witnesses whose statements police were using to establish a profile of the assailants, believed to be two black teenagers, about 5 feet 10 and of medium build.
Varying descriptions were provided of the assailants' hair styles, from heavily gelled to an Afro top and shaved on the sides.
With Metro's helicopter pilot scoping from overhead, police spent the afternoon combing vacant houses that could double as hiding places for the gunman and his accomplice. Officers also scanned the crowded Broadacres Open Air Swap Meet about a half-mile west of San Marcos.
By nightfall, no suspects had surfaced.
"To think someone would want to rob him is so terrible. He couldn't have had much more than $20 on him," said Jeanette Maltese, a nine-year resident of the older row of single-story homes.
Her family was curious about the cart the first time it appeared a few months back. Their first few bites made them instant fans of the treats, as well as of the man whose face "would just light up with a smile when you walked up."
"He'd come around about the same time every day, right after the kids got out of school," she said. "All the kids loved him. They were always goofing him, playing around. My son won't eat lunch when he knows that cart's here -- he goes out just to get those chips."
Looking down the street at the idle cart where police were huddling, her husband pointed out a tan plastic bag hanging off the side -- the day's last bag of unsold chips.
"It's really sad," Maltese said. "I think that cart was his only way to make a living."
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