Posted on 06/24/2023 11:18:31 PM PDT by algore
Three Texas police officers have been charged with the murder of a 46-year-old woman who was having a manic episode and was cutting wires to her apartment building's fire alarm system.
San Antonio police sergeant Alfred Flores, officer Eleazar Alejandro, and officer Nathaniel Villalobos were the three officers involved in the June 23 incident.
The woman, identified as Melissa Petez, was experiencing a mental health crisis around 2am on Friday, officials said. Bodycam footage captured her yelling and at one point holding a hammer.
'It appears Ms. Perez was having a mental health crisis,' the police chief said.
The officers who arrived at the scene first attempted to help Perez and walk her to a patrol unit, but she ran back inside her apartment and locked the door and the situation escalated.
Officers tried to speak to her through an open window, but she threw a glass candle at the one of the officers, the police chief said.
Two officers were seen leaping on top the patio area while Perez was holding a hammer and swinging it inside the home in the direction of where the officers were standing.
The hammer ended up hitting and shattering one of the windows but none of the officers appeared to be hit by the hammer.
One of the officers responded by opening fire, but it doesn't appear that Perez had been hit by the round of bullets.
She then attempted to go back outside where the officers were standing, with hammer in hand, and that is when the officers again opened fire and she was fatally struck by gunfire
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Police have been mistrained for 40.years now.
Nope. The same old Texas and San Antonio. SA has been nearly 70% Hispanic as long as I’ve lived here (48 years)
C’mon, man!
The people commenting here is support of the shooting have obviously not watched the video.
So - 3 cops couldn’t get the upper hand and use non-deadly force against a single woman?
You find life way too cheap...
Not in San Antonio, mexicans have always been the majority in that town.
How it goes in a society where involuntary commitment for mental health treatment is eliminated.
“If three cops can’t deal with one woman armed with a hammer without shooting her, perhaps they’re in the wrong profession.”
Exactly right.
Not well handled, but murder charges are way over the top.
Time to bring back the classic police baton?
“Not well handled, but murder charges are way over the top.”
What would they have done if it was a civilian with a gun shooting someone with a hammer?
“Equal force” laws are for judging this exact unequal weapon situation. If it is unequal it is not self defense it is murder.
Aside from the fact it appears they were trying to enter her home without a warrant. All they had to do was stand down after she entered her home and get a warrant.
But what happened here was “Submit to superior authority or die”. And “let’s get this done because our shift is about over”.
So the police chief, not being there, made the diagnosis. Chief, stay in your own lane.
You and I agree, but we are in the minority. There are still oodles of jackboot lickers and holster polishers on FR.
He believes he is a third world tin pot dictator. And he dresses like one.
3 vs 1 middle aged woman. Yeah real tough situation. The kitties were in fear for their lives. Long enough for one to mag dump at air. Then finally get kill shots. No taser or retreat a bit nope let’s get our notches.
It pays and pays well. Do your job correctly and you won’t have trouble.
Its kind of hard to hit a suspect with a police baton when you are standing three feet, or more, away from her closed storm door, and she is standing as far inside her home, holding a hammer.
In my youth cops were able to handle many a situation without going for the gun. Many boasted about going a whole career without ever having to draw it in anger. Now we have a lot of trigger-happy agents of the state.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.