Three San Antonio police officers charged with murder in woman’s shooting death

Three San Antonio police officers were charged with murder Friday in the fatal shooting of a 46-year-old woman, who swung a hammer in their direction and appeared to be in distress in her home, officials said.

The three officers, Sgt. Alfred Flores and Officers Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos, have been suspended without pay and were taken into custody Friday. They have been with the San Antonio Police Department for 14, five and two years.

“The shooting officers’ actions were not consistent with SAPD’s policy and training,” Chief William McManus said at a news conference Friday night.

The officers received a call just after midnight Friday morning of a disturbance at an apartment complex on the southwest side of San Antonio, McManus said. The woman, whom authorities identified as Melissa Perez, was cutting fire alarm wires at the complex, which is a felony, police said.

McManus said it appeared she was having a “mental health crisis.” When officers tried to get her to walk toward their car, she ran into her apartment and locked the door.

After climbing over her porch railing, an officer opened her window screen and said, “You’re going to get shot,” according to body camera footage released by the department. Perez said, “Shoot me,” and said they didn’t have a warrant.

Police then waited outside the apartment for backup, and a group of officers went to the front of her apartment. Flores, Alejandro and Villalobos were stationed on a back porch.

Two officers jumped over the patio railing, McManus said, and Perez picked up a hammer and began approaching them.

She then swung the hammer, McManus said, toward an officer who was outside the apartment, and hit a window, breaking it. An officer shot at Perez, but it appears she was not hit, McManus said. She went toward the window again, still holding the hammer, and all three officers opened fire. She was hit at least two times, and emergency medical services pronounced her dead at the scene.

Three investigations of Perez’s death are being conducted – two by the police department’s internal affairs and homicide divisions, and an independent investigation by the civil rights division of the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.