San Antonio officers charged with murder after shooting woman in ‘mental health crisis’
Three San Antonio police officers have been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Texas woman who was experiencing a “mental health crisis” at the time, police said.
The deadly gunfire erupted Friday at an apartment complex on the city’s southwest side, KWTX reported. Sgt. Alfred Flores, Officer Eleazar Alejandro and Officer Nathaniel Villalobos were responding to reports of vandalism when they arrived on the scene around 12:30 a.m. They encountered Melissa Perez, who was cutting “wires to an alarm panel” inside the building, Chief William McManus said during a press conference.
The officers determined that the cutting of the alarm wires was a felony and tried to approach the woman, the police chief added.
“It appears that Ms. Perez was having a mental health crisis,” McManus said. “Officers attempted to get her to walk toward their patrol car, but she ran back to her apartment and she locked the door.”
Video released by the department appears to show an officer then climbing over a railing onto the patio of Perez’s first-floor apartment. Then, “attempting to arrest the woman, officers open the screen to the window that was already open,” according to Lt. Michelle Ramos.
Perez then allegedly picked up a hammer and started to swing it in the officers’ direction, shattering a window. She also threw a glass candle at one of the cops, leaving him with minor injuries.
One officer responded by firing in her direction, but she was not struck in the initial gunfire. Police said Perez briefly retreated inside her unit, and then headed back outside toward the officers, hammer still in hand. At that point, three police officers fired their weapons at Perez.
She was pronounced dead on the scene.
All three officers were suspended following a review of the shooting, the department said in a statement late Friday.
Their “actions are not consistent with SAPD’s policy training and they placed themselves in a situation where they used deadly force which was not reasonable given all the circumstances as we now understand them,” McManus said.
