Lalrp.org:
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Three San Antonio law enforcement officials had been charged with homicide on Friday lower than 24 hours after they fatally shot a girl throughout a police name, the police chief introduced.
Officer Eleazar Alejandro, 28; Sgt. Alfred Flores, 45; and Officer Nathaniel Villalobos, 27, are suspended from the power with out pay because the investigation continues.
“The capturing officers’ actions weren’t according to SAPD insurance policies and coaching, and so they positioned themselves in a scenario the place they used lethal power which was not cheap given all of the circumstances as we now perceive them,” Chief William McManus mentioned in a information convention Friday night time.
McManus mentioned police had been responding to a name {that a} girl later recognized as Melissa Ann Perez, 46, was reducing wires to a fireplace alarm system at her condo complicated.
“It appeared that Ms. Perez was having a psychological well being disaster,” mentioned the chief.
After initially talking with officers outdoors, Perez went again inside her condo and locked the door, based on McManus.
Edited and blurred physique digital camera video launched by the police division exhibits officers persevering with to speak to Perez via a rear patio window, urging her to come back out.
On the physique digital camera video, she will be heard twice saying, “You ain’t obtained no warrant!” One officer tried to open the window, and McManus mentioned Perez threw a glass candleholder at him. Police mentioned she later swung a hammer at an officer however hit the window as a substitute, breaking it.
In response to McManus, one officer opened fireplace, however Perez was not hit and will be heard nonetheless talking on the physique digital camera video.
However seconds later, McManus mentioned, Perez “superior towards the window once more whereas nonetheless holding the hammer, and all three officers opened fireplace.”
Greater than a dozen photographs are heard on the physique digital camera video. Perez was struck not less than twice, based on McManus. Officers “tried life-saving measures,” the arrest warrant mentioned, however Perez died on the scene.
Though she was allegedly approaching the officers with a hammer when the officers opened fireplace, the arrest warrant mentioned Perez “didn’t pose an imminent menace of great bodily harm or loss of life when she was shot as a result of the defendants had a wall, a window blocked by a tv, and a locked door between them.”
has requested the unedited physique digital camera movies within the case.
Bexar County jail information present all three officers had been launched on $100,000 bond. The police division will conduct an inner evaluation and switch it over to prosecutors as soon as it’s accomplished. Courtroom information point out their preliminary listening to is about for July 25.
left messages with Alejandro and Villalobos requesting remark Saturday. was unable to seek out contact data for Flores.
reached out to the San Antonio Police Officers’ Affiliation for remark Saturday and to find out if the officers have attorneys, however has not acquired a reply.
The New York Occasions reported it obtained an announcement from the affiliation saying, “At the moment, that is an lively investigation, and may’t communicate to the matter additional till the investigation is full and judicial course of is underway.”
The assertion added the affiliation provided “our deepest condolences to Melissa Perez’s household.”
