SAN ANTONIO — The police chief in Balcones Heights says the Bexar County District Attorney is reviewing a shooting incident that happened Friday night and he expects to release bodycam footage of the incident within the next week.
Chief John Jahanara says the Texas Rangers are also looking over what happened when 49-year-old Marta Lamar Prater was shot to death by police during a confrontation at the abandoned Crossroads Car Wash.
Jahanara said the incident began simply enough but "It went from zero to 100 really quick," when an officer told the woman, who they said was trespassing on private property, to move along.
"As he returned to his Tahoe he heard a loud crash, what he described as a bang. It was a pair of scissors attached to like a tow strap, nylon rope," Jahanara said.
Jahanara said the woman used the improvised weapon to smash the rear window of the patrol vehicle and then she came after the officer.
"The officer tried to de-escalate and figure out what was going on, to help the individual," Jahanara explained. He added that the woman was talking but she wasn't making much sense.
"The backup officer arrives and tried the same thing. The individual was repeatedly swinging this device that had scissors attached to it. A nylon rope with a metal hook on it," Jahanara said.
Attempting a non-lethal solution, Jahanara said both officers deployed several Taser cartridges in an effort to stop the attack, but the plan didn't work. He said their tasers had little to no effect on the woman because the probes couldn't penetrate the woman's clothing.
"There was over nine to ten, almost a dozen layers of clothing that she had on her so we've learned in training, if there are heavy jackets, heavy materials, multiple layers of clothing that Taser cartridges are ineffective so on the spot you have to think of what you're going to do next," Jahanara said.
He said that when the woman gave chase and started swinging the weapon at the officers, the officers protected themselves.
"Unfortunately two rounds were fired and the individual was struck. Struck in the neck. Struck in the head," Jahanara said, adding the woman received immediate first aid, but died shortly after she arrived at the hospital.
Jahanara said the woman was familiar to officers because she had been given previous criminal trespass citations and was warned to stay away from private property in the area.
"I believe she is homeless from what we gathered and I believe that mental health played a big role in this," he said.
Jahanara said his officers are physically okay, but dealing with an attack like this is hard so, he plans on reviewing policies and procedures.
"There are so many tools out there so I'm really going to take a look at it because for me, it's a loss of life," he said. "It's always a learning game to see what we can do better when you have an incident like this," he added.
Jahanara said they have offered counseling to any officer who requests it and they are waiting for the Texas Rangers to issue their report on the incident, but he believes his officers will return to full duty shortly.
Married Couple Witnesses Aftermath
One couple KENS 5 spoke to wanted to remain anonymous but drove up as police had Prater handcuffed on the ground.
"It was sad, was a sad sight to see," the husband said.
The wife, who said she is a nurse, did not see anyone render aid until the ambulance got there. The police chief said his officers did render aid right away.
“There was no sign of life, but in my opinion what you expect to see is life saving measures, I didn’t see any of that going on," she said.
They are hoping the body camera video will shed more light on what happened. They said if the woman was having a mental health crisis, she did not deserve to die.
“It’s just unfortunate that it escalated that quickly," The wife said.
Ananda Tomas, an advocate for police accountability said it is not uncommon for homeless community members to react this way towards police, but it should not be used as a "death warrant."
"Destroyed property like a police vehicle should never be valued more than a life either," Tomas said. "Also one cannot help but wonder how this would have played out differently if police had not been the ones to respond to the issue but an alternative responder team instead."
Pictures of the smashed rear window of the patrol vehicle:
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