San Antonio police arrested 26-year-old Aquiminee La Roy Crawford on Sunday, May 17, and charged him with murder and abuse of a corpse after he told dispatchers he had killed his uncle and placed the body in a backyard recycling bin. Officers responded to a dead-on-arrival call at a home in the 140 block of Sterling Street on the city's east side around 9:30 p.m.

The 911 caller was identified as Aquiminee Crawford, who told dispatchers that he had shot and killed his uncle the week before. Officers searching the backyard smelled a foul odor coming from a recycling bin. An officer tipped over the bin and, upon opening the lid, recognized a human hand wrapped in a black plastic bag. Inside the bin, police found a body wrapped in black plastic bags with multiple gunshot wounds.

The San Antonio Fire Department pronounced the man dead at the scene. The victim was identified as 52-year-old Derrick Cornell Crawford.

During questioning at San Antonio Police Department Public Safety Headquarters, Aquiminee Crawford told investigators he retrieved a handgun from his bedroom and shot his uncle inside the house. He said he shot Derrick Crawford five times in the home's living room on Saturday, May 9. He told a detective that he lived at the home with his uncle.

Aquiminee Crawford admitted to authorities that he wrapped his uncle's body in black trash bags and placed it in the backyard recycling bin. He told investigators that a handgun, a plastic bag of spent shell casings and his uncle's cellphone were in his bedroom.

Investigators executed a search warrant for the home and seized the handgun, the spent shell casings and the victim's cellphone. Inside the home, they located a crime scene that included blood splatter along the walls and ceiling and a sofa cushion drenched in blood. Investigators said the evidence found at the scene corroborated Aquiminee Crawford's statements.

Derrick Crawford's mother told investigators that family members had been searching for him for more than a week. She also told investigators that they had been looking for her son since Sunday.

Aquiminee Crawford was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on charges of murder and abuse of a corpse. A judge set his bond at $250,000.