Two ex-SAPD officers indicted on murder charges in fatal shooting of Melissa Perez

A third officer was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Perez, 46, a mother of four, was experiencing a mental health crisis, family members say.

Sgt. Alfred Flores, left, and Officers Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos are charged in the shooting death of Melissa Perez, 46.
San Antonio Police Department

San Antonio Express-News
By Emilie Eaton, Staff writer
December 14, 2023

Two former San Antonio police officers have been indicted on charges of murder in the fatal shooting of Melissa Perez, a 46-year-old mother of four who relatives say was suffering a mental health crisis when police confronted her at her apartment on the Southwest Side in June.

A Bexar County grand jury indicted former Sgt. Alfred Flores and former officer Eleazar Alejandro on murder charges.

A third officer who was at the scene, Nathaniel Villalobos, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. 

“The one message I’ll tell you is that no one is above the law,” District Attorney Joe Gonzales said Thursday afternoon in announcing the indictments. “If you break the law, we’re going to hold you to account.

“Ninety-nine percent of SAPD do an outstanding job,” he added. “When 1% fails to work within the law, they must be held accountable.”

Flores, Alejandro and Villalobos are accused of shooting into Perez’s apartment after she allegedly threw a glass candlestick at an officer and, later in the evening, rushed toward police with a hammer.

Family members say Perez suffered from schizophrenia.

San Antonio police officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter a handful of times over the last four decades for off-duty killings. But until the Perez case, no San Antonio officer had been charged with murder for an on-duty shooting, according to news archives and San Antonio Police Department officials.

“It certainly is a rarity when prosecutors prosecute someone that is on the same side,” Gonzales said. “We rely on officers to come to court as witnesses … It’s a difficult decision to make, but one that is necessary.”

Ben Sifuentes, a lawyer representing Alejandro, said his client was justified in his actions and should not have been charged.

“Police officers have the right to use force to protect bystanders and the right to use force to resist the use of deadly force,” he told the Express-News. “This woman had a hammer. The video clearly shows she had a hammer. We disagree with the state’s contention that she posed no risk of injury to the officers, and we believe we’ll be able to show in trial that the officer was justified.” 

Patrol officers responded to the Rosemont at Miller’s Pond apartments around 12:30 a.m. June 23 after a neighbor called 911 to report that Perez had cut the wires to the complex’s fire alarm system.

Officers found Perez outside talking to firefighters and approached her. Perez initially was cooperative, giving the officers her name, date of birth and apartment number. She said she cut the wires because the FBI was eavesdropping on her.

Melissa Perez, right, with her daughter, Alexis Tovar, in an undated family photo.
Courtesy

But when officers asked Perez to walk to their patrol car with them, she grew upset, ran to her apartment and locked the front door. Officers tried to kick the door down. 

At 1:40 a.m., an unidentified officer hopped a fence onto Perez’s rear patio and attempted to take the screen off her back window. She allegedly grabbed a hammer. The officer drew his weapon and notified a dispatcher that he was holding Perez at gunpoint.

In body camera footage that SAPD made public, the officer warned her: “You’re gonna get shot.”

“Shoot me,” Perez responded. “You ain’t got no warrant.”

Perez then threw a glass candlestick at the officer, striking his arm. The officers retreated.

Officers waited 22 minutes and decided to try to enter the apartment again. By then, Flores, Alejandro and Villalobos had arrived as backup.

While Alejandro spoke with Perez, Flores and Villalobos jumped over the fence onto the patio. Perez charged “toward the closed patio door while swinging the hammer,” striking the window, according to court records.

Flores, Alejandro and Villalobos fired between 12 and 16 rounds at Perez, hitting her twice, investigators said.

SAPD homicide detectives spent hours investigating the shooting before concluding that Perez did not pose a threat to the officers because she was on the other side of a locked glass door. 

The three officers were arrested the same day as the shooting. They were booked on murder charges and later released on bond.

Flores had been with SAPD for 14 years, Alejandro for five years and Villalobos for two.

SAPD handed off its investigative findings to the DA’s office, which presented the case to a Bexar County grand jury.

The indictment means the grand jury found probable cause to believe the officers committed the crimes with which they’re charged. To secure a conviction at trial, prosecutors will have to meet a higher standard and prove the defendants guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

After the shooting, SAPD officials faulted officers for failing to call in the department’s mental health unit to deal with a citizen in distress. It’s department policy for the unit to handle such situations.

“It was a failure of officers on the scene to follow routine training and protocol and practices when it comes to dealing with calls involving folks who are in mental crisis, which this turned out to be,” Police Chief William McManus told the Express-News days after the shooting.

“This was not an unusual call. It was not something that the officers were unaccustomed to dealing with,” McManus said. “It wasn’t long into the call before we were able to understand that it was a person in mental crisis.”

The SAPD handles mental health-related 911 calls every day — often dozens a day. Last year, it received 32,190 such calls, according to figures given to a City Council committee.

As soon as patrol officers determined that Perez was unstable, they should have left and returned later, Assistant Chief Karen Falks, who oversees the mental health unit, told the Express-News after the shooting.

“What we’ve done in the past in that situation is just de-escalate that scene,” Falks said. “We would have left her there and came to check on her the next day to ensure that she received the mental health treatment she needed.”

Ananda Tomas, executive director of the police accountability organization ACT 4 SA, said the indictment of the three officers was no more than a first step toward police reform in San Antonio.

“True justice would be Melissa still being here and for this to never have happened at all,” Tomas said. “It’s more than just convictions; we need deep reform and change. We need different answers than just adding more officers.”

Flores is being represented by Thom Nisbet, a former Bexar County prosecutor, and David Christian, who defended former City Councilman Clayton Perry in his hit-and-run and DWI cases.

Sifuentes, who specializes in defending police officers in employment and criminal matters, and Mario Del Prado, a former Bexar County prosecutor, are representing Alejandro.

Jason Goss, who works in the law office of Nico LaHood, a former Bexar County district attorney, is defending Villalobos.

Jacob Beltran contributed to this report.