NEW DETAILS EMERGE IN SAPD SHOOTING
New details emerged Wednesday night about the fatal shooting by police of a West Side man as Mayor Ron Nirenberg called for a re-examination of policies regarding the release of video from police officers’ body-worn cameras.
He asked the City Council for the review “as part of our efforts to improve transparency, accountability and public accessibility.”
Nirenberg said he would not push for the immediate release of video from the officers’ cameras in the shooting of Darrell Zemault Sr. because state law does not allow it.
“An active investigation — that will be referred to the district attorney and ultimately to a grand jury — is being conducted of the officer-involved shooting on Tuesday,” he said.
“State law prevents the public release of the body camera footage during the investigation, but I am requesting that the footage be released as soon as the investigation is complete. It is in the public interest for San Antonians to be able to view the video themselves.”
An investigation of an officer-involved shooting can takes months, if not years, meaning it could be some time before the police video is released.
Still, the release of the footage would be unusual, as the police department does not routinely provide body camera video to the public without a specific open records request, even after an investigation is completed.
Nirenberg’s announcement comes one day after police shot and killed Zemault, a 55year-old Black man, while arresting him on two family violence warrants — violation of a bond and assault causing bodily injury.
According to police, Zemault was in the front yard of his bungalow on Willee Drive when three plainclothes detectives and two uniformed officers arrived about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday.
Police said the incident es
as two officers tried to handcuff Zemault and he resisted. One officer used a baton to hit Zemault in the legs and thighs.
This is an excerpt from the police account, released Wednesday night:
“During the struggle, the holster containing the duty weapon belonging to one of the detectives fell onto the ground. As the officers struggled to take him into custody, the actor (Zemault) grabbed the officers holstered gun and drew the gun from the holster. One of the detectives saw this and an immediate struggle for the gun began.
“The actor (Zemault) had his finger on the trigger and was manipulating the gun in an attempt to point it at the officers. As the detective struggled to keep the gun from being pointed at him and the other officers, he called out to the other officers notifying them that the actor had a gun.
“One of the other detectives saw what was happening and fearing that the actor was going to fire the weapon at the other detective, fired one round into the actor’s back.”
Police officials have not released the names of the officers.
Nirenberg’s approach in waiting for the release of the body camera footage stands in contrast to his decision last month to push for the immediate release of video showing a Black jogger being wrestled into a police car by two officers.
At the time, prosecutors were still investigating the incident. Charges against Mathias Ometu, 33, weren’t dropped until four days later, on Sept. 1.
Bruce Davidson,
aspokesman for the mayor, said Nirenberg’s approach differed because Ometu’s arrest did not involve the use of deadly force by an officer.
Moreover, there was no pending Internal Affairs or criminal investigation into the officers’ actions in the Ometu case. There is in Zemault’s case, as is standard after an officer-involved shooting.
During the daily briefing about the coronavirus pandemic when Nirenberg was asked about his call for a policy review about police videos, he said, “I err on the side of disclosure. I think sunlight helps us to get through these issues with better clarity, but we have to navigate statute and we also have to be respectful of the investigation process.”
Celeste Brown, an organizer with Defund Police SA and a friend of Zemault’s family who called him a
“second father,” told the City Council earlier Wednesday that Zemault “didn’t have to die.”
She also spoke Wednesday night at a candlelight vigil for Zemault, where more than 100 people gathered outside his home.
“Everyone called Dad,” she said, because Zemault was “a good man” who has been maligned by police and the media.
Showing solidarity with the Zemault, Antronie Scott Jr., whose father was shot by a police officer, led the group in chants of “No justice, no peace; no racist police; whose streets, our streets; show me what community looks like; this is what community looks like.”
Zemault’s daughter, Susie, told the crowd that her father was not perfect, but was turning his life around.
“He made mistakes, he had a record, but he overcalated came it,” she said through tears. “He told me it was going to be better.”
Violence accusations
One of the warrants officers were serving Tuesday stem from an incident on July 3, after Zemault’s exgirlfriend told police that he drove to her home and accused her of cheating on him.
The woman told police that Zemault pulled her out of her car and said he was going to kill her. She said he began to drag her to his car, took her purse and left.
She said they had split up nearly nine months earlier, in October 2019. Since then, she told officers, she had called police on him multiple times, accusing him of a terroristic threat in February, burglary of a vehicle and harassment in April and theft in late June.
No criminal charges were filed in those four cases, court records show.
On July 4, a judge signed two warrants for Zemault’s arrest: for stalking, a felony, and assault bodily injury, a misdemeanor. Police were executing the warrants about 5:20 p.m. that day when Zemault allegedly attacked two San Antonio police officers.
Police officials did not respond Wednesday to a request for information about that incident.
Zemault was transferred downtown that evening and police booked him on the two warrants. They also filed a criminal complaint alleging that he assaulted the two officers.
All four cases were under review by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office at the time of Zemault’s death. He had not yet been indicted or criminally charged.
Zemault spent a month in jail while awaiting trial before he was released on bail in early August. As a condition of his bond, Zemault was placed under partial house arrest and was required to wear a GPS tracker, court records show.
He was not allowed to contact his ex-girlfriend, and he couldn’t possess any firearms.
However, it appears as if Zemault contacted the woman on Facebook at least three times since he was released in August. If he did so, it would have been a violation of the judge’s order not to contact the woman.
“My girlfriend,” he wrote two weeks ago, on a post that was nearly a year old.
“Yo you better pick up your phone,” he wrote on another post.
“So beautiful,” he wrote, moments later.
Asked if the family had spoken to the woman who filed domestic violence complaints against Zemault, Brown said: “Absolutely not. We have nothing to say to her.”
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