St. Mary’s professor gives insight into murder charges for SAPD officers in Melissa Perez’s shooting death

SAN ANTONIO – There are still many unanswered questions after Melissa Perez’s death. Perez was shot and killed by three San Antonio police officers early Friday morning in her apartment in the 6200 block of Old Pearsall Road.

The officers — identified as Sgt. Alfred Flores and Officers Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos — were arrested and charged with murder that same day.

Assistant Professor of Law at Saint Mary’s University School of Law, Alexandra Klein, said it’s unusual to see charges filed that quickly in police shootings.

“It’s possible that charging decision was made after looking at the footage and concluding that there was, at this time, probable cause to conclude that those actions were intentional,” said Klein.

Klein said charges of murder instead of manslaughter come down to intent.

“There had to be sufficient information that would justify the conclusion that the officers more likely than not had a higher level of intent. In Texas, murder and manslaughter both require causing the death of an individual, but murder has a higher mental state or intent,” said Klein.

Klein added, “In Texas, intentionally or knowingly causing someone’s death is murder, or intending to cause serious bodily injury to that person and committing an act that’s clearly dangerous to human life that causes that person’s death. Ms. Perez was in her home. She was behind a locked door, and the warrant specifically states that she wasn’t an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death to the officers.”

San Antonio police are investigating the deadly shooting. The Bexar County District Attorney’s Office will then review and prepare the cases to present to the grand jury.

“The grand jury determines if there is probable cause to move forward, which would lead to an indictment for the crime. The grand jury has significant flexibility in recommending potential charges. And grand juries can also decline to indict as well,” Klein said.

Klein said it’s too early in the investigation and the process to determine if the officers could be convicted. But there are serious questions about the officer’s use of deadly force based on the police body camera footage and the details that have been released about the case, including that Perez did not have a gun.

“Typically, police can’t simply enter a person’s home without a warrant or some kind of warrant exception. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but there would certainly be some concerns about the justifications for the attempts to enter into Ms. Perez’s home, as well as why the officers thought that she was a sufficient threat to use deadly force when she was inside her home, some distance from the officers and didn’t appear to have a firearm, or didn’t have a firearm. They never said she did,” Klein said.