SAN ANTONIO — Six months after a grandmother was gunned down by San Antonio police, two officers who were not on the scene were suspended.
Documents show a lieutenant and a sergeant went home early the night Melissa Perez was shot in her home. The two left their assigned shifts, according to an internal investigation.
“If the highest-ranking officer in that area would have been on the clock the way he was supposed to be and would have responded, perhaps he would have done what the other 15 officers did not do,” said attorney Dan Packard, who represents the victim’s family in a civil lawsuit. "He could have said, 'Put your weapons away, this woman is not a threat.'"
Discipline records state Lt. Steven Velasquez left his assigned shift about four hours early. He was suspended indefinitely. Sgt. Paul Rodriguez left his shift about 45 minutes early and was suspended for seven days.
“We certainly see that there is a whole litany of catastrophic failures that led to this event,” Packard said.
In the early hours of June 23, police responded to reports of a woman destroying fire alarms at an apartment complex. Packard said Perez, 46, was suffering from an “acute schizophrenic episode.”
Body camera footage shows an officer jumping onto Perez’s patio and trying to get in through a window. She is seen throwing a hammer at the window. When Perez throws the hammer a second time, three officers open fire and kill her. Those officers were reprimanded by the San Antonio Police Department, and later indicted by a grand jury on felony charges.
“It was preventable, horrific, unnecessary,” said Packard. “[It demonstrates] a profound lack of judgement.”
According to Packard, Perez’s family is grateful more officers are being held accountable. However, he said accountability can’t stop there.
“As long as the city is saying, ‘Our policies and procedures are perfect, we don’t really have a problem,’ nothing is going to change,” Packard said.
SAPD said mental health workers with the Community Outreach and Resiliency Effort (CORE) were not on-call at the time of the deadly officer-involved shooting. However, we’re told the team’s response hours have been extended this year. The team still doesn’t respond 24 hours a day, but does take calls into the late evening.