This story has been updated.
The City of San Antonio launched a $1.7 million pilot program last year designed to ensure mental health-related calls do not needlessly result in arrest or worse, use of deadly force.
But on Friday night, police Chief William McManus, City Manager Erik Walsh and Deputy City Manager María Villagómez found themselves at a press conference answering questions about the deadly shooting by police earlier that day of Melissa Perez, a woman who appeared to be having a mental health crisis.
At the press conference, McManus announced the arrest of the three officers involved in the shooting and murder charges against them. He said their alleged actions were “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,” McManus said.
The Packard Law Firm of San Antonio said Monday attorney Daniel Packard will file a lawsuit against the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio Police Department this week on behalf of Perez’s daughter, Alexis Tovar.
Tovar told the San Antonio Express-News her 46-year-old mother suffered from schizophrenia.
The speed with which the police department arrested and charged the three officers was unusual. But the shooting was a troubling indication that the measures the department put in place to prevent unnecessary use of force against people experience mental health crises have not been enough to prevent such incidents.
Arrested in Perez’s death were Alfred Flores, a 14-year SAPD veteran; Eliazar Alejandro, a five-year veteran of the force; and Nathaniel Villalobos, who had been with SAPD for two years. All have been suspended without pay and have posted bail.
Through a spokeswoman, McManus declined to respond to questions about what specific policies and procedures the police officers failed to follow during the incident as well as questions about what de-escalation training officers received. The District Attorney’s office said it could not comment on the facts of the case because it is being actively investigated.
In a statement to the San Antonio Report, Villagómez expressed condolences to Perez’s family and said the actions of the officers involved in the incident “were not consistent with SAPD policies and training, including policies relating to an escalated mental health crisis call.”
Walsh also offered his condolences to Perez’s family and said he supported McManus’ decision to suspend and charge the officers with murder.
“This should never happen,” Walsh said. “Any person experiencing a mental health crisis should be greeted with compassion and support. We will work to continue to enhance the way SAPD and other resources respond to these calls for service.”
As part of the city’s police services review in 2020 in response to protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, the city launched a pilot program to send specially trained police officers, paramedics and licensed clinicians to certain 911 calls that involve mental health.
The team, called SA CORE, currently covers the San Antonio Police Department’s Central substation’s territory seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., responding to mental health-related calls that do not involve weapons. Perez, however, lived in Southwest San Antonio, outside the area SA CORE is working in.
Bexar County started a similar program — the Specialized Multidisciplinary Alternate Response Team — in 2020 that was expanded the following year. Of the 934 calls SMART responded to from October 2020 to December 2021, none resulted in use of force, Eric Epley, executive director of Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, told Bexar County Commissioners in February.
SA CORE is intended to augment other public safety-related mental health initiatives such as SAPD’s Mental Health Unit and the department’s crisis intervention training. As part of discussions of the upcoming city budget, City Council expressed support for expanding SA CORE citywide and adding additional teams.
ACT 4 SA, a local group that advocates for police accountability, credited the SAPD with moving fast to charge the officers with murder following Perez’s death but criticized the department for “neglect, foolishness and violence.”
“These officers had been on the force ranging from 2-14 years. … All are required to de-escalate according to SAPD policy, yet none acted accordingly,” the group said in a statement. “What kind of ‘training’ is this? What type of ‘protection’ is this? Why was the mental health unit not dispatched for this call?”
San Antonio Fire Department personnel were involved in the initial contact with Perez, a resident of the Rosemont at Miller’s Pond apartments, as they responded to a report that she was cutting wires to the apartment complex’s fire alarm system. SAPD officers arrived and approached her in the parking lot. She gave officers her name and apartment number, but appeared to be having a mental health episode, McManus said.
She fled into her first-floor apartment and locked the door, according to SAPD. At her back patio, police body camera video shows three officers at the window and back door. McManus said they ordered Perez out of the apartment, but she refused.
Police Lt. Michelle Ramos, who narrated the video released by SAPD, said the officers saw Perez holding a hammer.
Ramos said Perez threw a candle at an officer, causing a minor injury. Ramos said officers communicated with Perez through a window on the patio for over 30 minutes.
Ramos said Perez hit a window with the hammer, shattering it. Then, an officer draws his gun and shoots, and the other officers also fire their weapons, killing Perez.
Perez was the mother of four children and had two grandchildren. She worked as a custodian but had struggled to hold a job because of her mental health, her daughter told the Express-News.
“I just don’t want this to happen again. … She didn’t deserve this,” Tovar told “Good Morning America” in a segment that aired Monday morning. “Those officers took my life. I will never be the same person again.”
