Three San Antonio police officers were charged with murder after a woman experiencing a “mental health crisis” was shot dead in her apartment, the city’s police chief said.
San Antonio Police Department Sgt. Alfred Flores and officers Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos were suspended without pay and arrested on murder warrants in the shooting death of Melissa Perez, 46, after she refused police orders to come out of her apartment, SAPD Chief William McManus said Friday, the Associated Press reported.
After Perez threw a glass candlestick at the officers and swung a hammer at them, one officer opened fire and then all three officers started shooting, McManus said. Perez was shot at least two times.
“The officers’ actions were not consistent with SAPD’s policy and training,” McManus said at a Friday news conference.
“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 added.
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Video shows officer removing patio window screen before shooting
McManus said Perez was talking to fire officials outside the apartment complex at about 12:30 a.m. Friday – after she was suspected of cutting the wires to a fire alarm at the apartment – when an officer approached her.
The officer can be heard on body camera video saying “hey lady, get over here” as Perez ran into her apartment.
“It appeared that Miss Perez was having a mental health crisis,” McManus said.
Video shows the officer jump onto the patio of Perez’s apartment and remove a window screen. The officer then shouts “you’re going to get shot.”
Perez replies “shoot me – you ain’t got no warrant.”
Multiple officers surrounded the patio and communicated with Perez for over 30 minutes, SAPD Lt. Michelle Ramos said in a video explaining the body camera footage.
After Perez ran toward the window with the hammer in her hand, striking the window, one officer opened fire, the video shows. When Perez came back toward the patio door, all three officers started shooting, it shows.
McManus said the incident is under investigation by the police department’s Internal Affairs and Civil Rights divisions and the Bexar County district attorney’s Civil Rights Division.
Contributing: The Associated Press
