Sheriff: Four mental health calls received for man killed by deputy

More details of a deadly struggle between Bexar County deputies and a despondent man were released Wednesday as protesters questioned the absence of a mental health professional at the incident.

Sheriff Javier Salazar said Damian Lamar Daniels, 30, was the subject of four mental health-related calls before he was killed during the struggle with three deputies Tuesday evening in the 11000 block of Liberty Field.

Daniels’ family made the first call at 4:08 p.m. Monday, telling deputies Daniels was having suicidal thoughts. Deputies went to Daniels’ home, where he lived by himself, but he did not answer the door.

At 10:30 p.m., a second call came from Daniels himself.

He told officials he was hearing things, that there was a ghost in his house and that he was feeling paranoid. Deputies were able to talk to him outside his house, but described him as “curt” and said he refused help.

Neighbors told deputies they heard a shot fired from Daniels’ home after officers had left, but they did not call authorities.

As deputies searched Daniels’ home Tuesday, they found a spent shell casing, Salazar said.

On Tuesday, a third call came from family members at 3:48 p.m. They said he was having a paranoiac episode, Salazar said.

He had sent messages to family members saying that he was hearing and seeing things and referring to family members who had died.

Salazar said Daniels recently lost a sibling and a parent, but did not identify them.

At 4:48 p.m., Daniels’ mother called deputies saying that he was willing to go out and talk to them.

Salazar said Daniels was more lucid in that meeting with deputies as he spoke to them through his door, but his mental state had worsened.

After Daniels stepped outside, Salazar said deputies could see a “bulge” at his hip and determined there was a handgun beneath his red shirt.

One of the deputies reached out and said, “Give me your hand, we’ll get you the help that you need,” Salazar said.

The same deputy had been coordinating with his partners to detain Daniels and get him help.

When Daniels turned his head to the side, another deputy tried to grab his right arm to gain control of him and take him to the ground, Salazar said.

When the attempt did not work, a deputy attempted to use a stun gun on Daniels, who instead grabbed the deputy’s stun gun.

After a struggle between the two, the deputy was able to keep the stun gun as another deputy used her own on Daniels, loosening his grip.

The struggle continued as Daniels reached for his own gun. Images released by the Sheriff’s Office showed deputies with their hands on the pistol and Daniels gripping the gun beneath his red shirt.

In that struggle, Salazar said the deputies were “pleading” with him to let go of the gun.

“It was very clear they were in a fight for their lives,” Salazar said.

Body camera footage of the encounter, which lasted more than 30 minutes, showed Daniels was carrying a Glock Model 22 .40-caliber pistol. He also had a second magazine and a knife.

More than an hour after Salazar released details of the fatal shooting, about 50 activists gathered outside the Sheriff’s Office to protest Daniels’ death.

Some stood in front of Sheriff’s Office vehicles, trying to get the drivers to say, “Black lives matter.”

Lexi Qaiyyim, an organizer with Young Ambitous Activists, said situations like this are exactly why protesters are calling for defunding the police. Qaiyyim said they do not believe officers are equipped to handle mental health calls.

Officials said the deputies involved in this incident received more than 80 hours of crisis intervention training in addition to state-mandated crisis intervention updates.

Salazar praised the deputies for handling the situation the way they did, but expressed sympathy for the loss of life.

“Our deputies and officers are forced to become mental health workers, and they’re very talented at that,” Salazar said.

Salazar said he doesn’t think a mental health worker would have been appropriate for the confrontation with Daniels.

“This is a suspect that we realize was armed very early on, and I think that our deputies were well-equipped to handle that situation,” Salazar said.

Asked whether the shooting was racially motivated, Salazar said, “I can tell you unequivocally, that did not play a role in this.”

Salazar said the deputies were talking to the man with a loving tone, and that they tried to relate to him by mentioning losses of their own or by citing his military service.

Officials said investigators are communicating with Fort Sam Houston to determine Daniels’ role in the armed forces.