The police shooting of a 46-year-old San Antonio woman whom officials believed to be having a “mental health crisis” marks the sixth fatal department incident this year, according to recent data. Those officers were suspended without pay, then soon charged over Melissa Perez’s death.
Sgt. Alfred Flores, Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos each face one count of murder, which is punishable by up to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Body cam footage of the incident was released by the San Antonio Police Department Friday.
On Friday at around 12:20 a.m., the officers responded to a vandalism incident involving a woman who’d cut wires to an alarm panel at the apartment complex she lived at.
Officers located Perez outside of the complex’s parking lot. She then ran back to her apartment and locked herself inside.
At the time, police were attempting to bring her to their patrol cars. Officers proceeded to follow her to her residence, located on the complex’s first floor.
Officers tried to reach Perez by removing a screen door attached to a patio window that was already open. Shortly after, Perez grabbed a hammer. That’s when a responding officer drew his firearm and pointed it at her.
The officer told a dispatcher that he had the woman at gunpoint.
Perez then threw a glass candle at the officers, hitting one of them in the arm. That officer sustained minor injuries, according to an SAPD spokesperson.
The officers then spoke with Perez through her window for approximately 30 minutes, before jumping over a fence into her back patio. In response, Perez struck the window with a hammer, shattering it.
One of the officers responded by firing multiple gunshot rounds into her apartment. Perez briefly moved away from the window, then came back with a hammer.
The three officers fired shots in her direction, striking her twice. Officials did not give information as to where specifically Perez was hit. She was declared dead at the scene.
At a press conference Friday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said that the officers’ response was “not consistent with SAPD’s policy and training.
“They placed themselves in a situation where they used deadly force which was not reasonable given all the circumstances as we now understand them,” he continued.
All three officers are currently out on $100,000 bond.
Perez’s family intends to file a civil rights lawsuit against the city, attorney Dan Packard, who’s representing her family, told the San Antonio Express-News.
Speaking to Good Morning America Monday, Perez’s daughter, Alexis Tovar, said that her mother “didn’t deserve this.”
“Those officers took my life and I will never be the same person again.”