Screenshot from body cam footage released by the San Antonio Police Department
HOUSTON — Melissa Perez was killed by three San Antonio police officers responding to a vandalism call in the city’s Southwest Side on Friday, June 23, at 12:30 in the morning. Perez, 46, was suspected of cutting wires to a fire alarm and was speaking with a fire department official outside of her apartment complex when an officer arrived.
The officer can be heard on body camera video shouting, “Hey lady, get over here!” Perez ignored the commands and began walking home, at which point the video shows an officer jump the railing to Perez’s patio and remove a window screen.
Just as Perez yells at him to “Stop it!” and “You ain’t got no warrant,” the officer climbs through the window as Perez thros a glass candlestick at him.
The officer responds by yelling, “You’re going to get shot!”
“Shoot me!” Perez says. “You ain’t got no warrant!”
The officers claim she then attacked them with a hammer. The sound of glass breaking is heard on the video followed by multiple gunshots from different angles. Perez was shot at least twice and died at the scene.
On Friday, Police Chief William McManus said that “it appeared Ms. Perez was having a mental health crisis” and then ran into her home.
“The officers’ actions were not consistent with SAPD’s policy and training,” he added. “They placed themselves in a situation where they used deadly force which was not reasonable given all the circumstances as we now understand them.”
A review of the SAPD’s incident video shows multiple violations of department policy and various state laws that resulted in murder charges being filed against the three officers.
Sgt. Alfred Flores and Officers Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos have since been arrested and were released Saturday on a $100,000 bond each.
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Arturo Domínquez is a first-generation Cuban American, anti-racist, journalist, and the publisher of The Antagonist magazine. Twitter: @ExtremeArturo
