SAN ANTONIO – Three San Antonio police officers are charged with murder after they shot and killed a woman inside her Southwest Side apartment early Friday morning, according to SAPD.
Sgt. Alfred Flores, Officer Eleazar Alejandro and Officer Nathaniel Villalobos are charged in 46-year-old Melissa Perez’s death.
All three were arrested Friday night and released on bond Saturday.
SAPD Chief William McManus said Friday night the officers didn’t follow department training or policy and “used deadly force, which was not reasonable given all the circumstances as we now understand them.”
Perez was experiencing a mental health crisis and had a hammer in her hand when police shot her through a patio window and door, McManus said.
Advertisement
The department released a portion of edited and blurred body-worn camera video from officers on the scene Friday night. KSAT has requested all footage from the incident.
SAPD initially said the officers’ employment was “terminated.” In another instance, the department said they were suspended without pay. KSAT has asked for further clarification.
There are three separate investigations underway since the murder charges were filed — by SAPD’s Internal Affairs and Homicide units and the Bexar County District Attorney’s Civil Rights Division.
This article explains what we know so far about Perez, the officers, the shooting and the body camera footage.
Who is Melissa Perez?
Alexis Tovar, Perez’s daughter, released a statement through her attorney Dan Packard on Saturday afternoon to ABC News.
Advertisement
“We have always been a pro-police family. This breaks my heart. I always trusted the police to protect me and now I don’t know who to trust. We can’t express how hurt we are,” Tovar’s statement said.
Packard Law Firm also released an image of Perez.
KSAT spoke to neighbors at the scene of the shooting Friday morning.
Ruben Veloz, who lives next door to Perez, said he didn’t really know anything was wrong until he left for work hours later.
“I was asleep,” he told KSAT. “I looked over, I saw windows broken and I was just, like, ‘Ok, what’s going on?’”
Advertisement
Both Veloz and another neighbor said they were shocked to hear that Perez was dead, and wondered what could have led to the shooting.
“I don’t know, like, the whole story of what happened, but to me she was always nice. I don’t know about everybody else,” Veloz said.
What San Antonio police have said about the shooting
The shooting happened around 2 a.m. Friday at the Rosemont at Miller’s Pond apartments, located in the 6200 block of Old Pearsall Road.
Police were called for a report of a woman, later identified as Perez, destroying property at the complex. According to Chief McManus, Perez was having a mental health crisis and cutting wires through a fire alarm system to the complex.
When officers arrived, Perez was speaking with San Antonio Fire Department crews in the parking lot. As they approached her, she ran back to her apartment and locked the door, McManus said.
Advertisement
Police tried to speak with Perez through a window, but she threw a glass candle at an officer, striking him in the arm, McManus said.
Officers Flores, Alejandro and Villalobos moved toward the back patio of Perez’s apartment and unsuccessfully attempted to coax Perez outside.
Two of the three officers jumped the railing onto the patio, and spoke to Perez through a window and door.
McManus said the window was open but officers removed the screen. He said they were investigating the incident as felony criminal mischief.
One of the officers said Perez picked up a hammer and was “approaching them from inside,” McManus said.
Advertisement
She swung the hammer toward the officers and broke the window separating her apartment from the patio, McManus said.
One of the officers shot at Perez, but McManus said it didn’t appear she was struck.
Perez went toward the window again, still carrying the hammer, and that’s when all three officers opened fire, according to McManus. Perez was hit at least two times.
Police forced their way inside the apartment and provided medical assistance until EMS arrived, McManus said.
Perez died from her injuries at the scene.
Advertisement
“Our condolences to Melissa Perez’s entire family, I want to ensure her daughter that this incident will continue to be thoroughly investigated,” McManus said.
There is not currently a timeline for the conclusion of the investigation, he said.
Who are the officers charged with murder?
The three SAPD officers who were charged in Perez’s murder were identified as Sgt. Alfred Flores, Officer Eleazar Alejandro and Officer Nathaniel Villalobos.
Flores has served with the police department for 14 years, Alejandro for five years and Villalobos for two years, according to McManus.
Bexar County court records show that each of the officers is charged with murder. Their bonds were set at $100,000 each.
Advertisement
As of Saturday morning, all three officers made their bond and were released from the Bexar County Jail pending trial.
“The shooting officers’ 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.
What the portion of released body camera footage shows
WARNING: The video may contain images that are disturbing to some individuals. Viewer discretion is advised.
San Antonio police released a portion of edited and blurred body-worn camera footage from the shooting around 9 p.m. Friday night.
McManus said the department expedited the release of the video.
Advertisement
The footage begins with an officer approaching Perez in the apartment complex’s parking lot while she is with her dog.
“Hey, lady, get over here,” the officer says.
Perez beings walking away, and the officer pursues her. “Get over here.”
“Nope,” Perez replies as she continues to walk toward her apartment and the officer runs after her.
Then, an officer is seen jumping onto Perez’s balcony.
Advertisement
Her balcony window is open, and the officer removes the screen.
Perez tries to close the window and tells him to stop.
The officer then raises his pistol and points it at Perez, telling her “You’re going to get shot.”
“Shoot me,” she replies.
Glass is then heard shattering, and the woman yells something at the officers.
Advertisement
The video then cuts to multiple officers standing at the balcony and then one officer again jumping over it.
“Hold on,” the officer says.
The woman replies, “You ain’t got no warrant.”
Another officer then says, “Let’s go. Move it.”
Two officers were then seen standing in the patio area.
Advertisement
One officer then turned around to reveal several officers who then all started yelling, “Watch out! Watch out!” before gunshots erupted from the officers toward the woman.
From a different perspective, one of the officers could be seen trying to open the door again.
The woman appeared to be still standing.
The officers start yelling to her, “Hey! Hey!” and more gunshots go off.
From another perspective, multiple officers could be seen firing shots at the woman’s apartment.
Advertisement
A hammer can not be seen clearly in the footage.
Read more on Melissa Perez and San Antonio police officers charged with murder:
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
The US has said it will remove a $10mn bounty for Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group that spearheaded the overthrow of Syria’s Assad regime, in a sign that Washington is willing to engage with the new leadership.
In exchange, Jolani, who now goes by his birth name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, agreed that terrorist groups could not be allowed “to pose a threat inside of Syria or externally, including to the US and our partners in the region”, Barbara Leaf, the State Department’s top Middle East official, said on Friday.
Leaf met Jolani in Damascus earlier in the day and told reporters that lifting the bounty would allow US officials to engage with the rebel leader without having to turn him over to US law enforcement.
Advertisement
Leaf said her meeting with Jolani was “quite good, very productive, detailed.”
“He came across as pragmatic,” she said, adding that he made “moderate” statements on equal protections for women and minorities. “We will judge by deeds, not just by words,” she added.
HTS is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, EU, UN and others, which means Washington cannot offer the group material support, but it can communicate with its members. Jolani has said Assad’s departure means sanctions on the state should be lifted.
US officials have said they would consider lifting both the sanctions and the terrorist designation, which has been in place since 2018, if HTS proved its commitment to “inclusive” rule and to maintaining stability.
They say Jolani and an eventual transitional government will face internal pressure to take steps needed for the sanctions regime to be lifted.
Advertisement
“I think there’s going to be quite a degree of internal pressure on both the interim authorities and then whatever transitional government comes a few months from now, to move in the direction that would, in fact, be consonant with the kind of requirements that we would have in terms of sanctions,” Leaf said.
She added that Jolani had stressed that he wanted to begin working on an economic recovery for Syria.
The US delegation to Damascus also included Roger Carstens, the US special envoy for hostages, and senior diplomat Daniel Rubenstein, who will be leading engagement with Syria.
The diplomats held meetings and visited a site in the capital as part of efforts to find Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared in Damascus in 2012.
Carstens said it was is unclear whether Tice was still alive. “The information that we have right now doesn’t confirm either one way or the other,” he said.
Advertisement
US officials say they plan to engage with transitional officials and other Syrians in further trips to Syria as conditions allow.
Watch: White House takes questions on looming government shutdown – CBS News
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spent most of her Friday press briefing answering questions about the possible government shutdown. Jean-Pierre said several times that Congress had a bipartisan deal and that House Speaker Mike Johnson needs to stick to it.
Advertisement
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Novo Nordisk, one of Europe’s largest companies, lost more than a quarter of its value on Friday after its latest obesity drug missed the drugmaker’s goal for an average of 25 per cent weight loss.
CagriSema helped patients lose an average of 22.7 per cent of their body weight in a late-stage trial, Novo Nordisk said on Friday, only marginally beating the results of Mounjaro, a rival treatment from Eli Lilly.
Martin Holst Lange, executive vice-president for development at Novo Nordisk, said that only 57 per cent of patients had received the highest dose of the drug. “We are encouraged by the weight-loss profile of CagriSema,” he said.
Advertisement
The company’s shares were down as much as 27 per cent in mid-morning trading in Denmark.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are competing for dominance in a market that grew sevenfold in just three years to $24bn in 2023, according to data analytics firm Iqvia.
Novo Nordisk had hoped its “next generation” weight-loss drug could lead the field, after its shares had struggled to keep pace with Eli Lilly and it suffered a setback from disappointing results for an experimental weight-loss pill in September.
“CagriSema is really important for us,” chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen told the Financial Times in November. “It’s a next-generation product and it has the potential to be best in class.”
Patients receiving Mounjaro lost an average of 22.5 per cent of their weight in phase 3 trials when taken as part of a regime of improved diet and exercise. Those on Wegovy, also made by Novo Nordisk, lost an average of about 15 per cent in similar conditions.
Advertisement
About 40 per cent of patients in the CagriSema trial achieved 25 per cent weight loss over the 68 weeks.
CagriSema combines semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, with cagrilintide, another hormone that makes people feel fuller for longer.
The trial of 3,417 people taking a weekly injection found that the most common side effects were gastrointestinal, the vast majority of which were mild and moderate and diminished over time.