Bond condition an issue for charged officer
To remain free on bail while they await trial, three San Antonio police officers accused of murder in the fatal shooting of Melissa Perez had to post bond. They had to promise not to leave Bexar County without a judge’s permission, and they have to check in regularly with a pretrial services officer. That’s not all. They had to surrender their service weapons and agree not to take possession of any other firearms.
That last restriction created a problem for one of the officers, Eleazar Alejandro. The reason: His wife is a police officer for the city of Castroville.
Alejandro’s conditions of bond forbid him to be in a house with guns in it. So his lawyers asked a judge to amend his release terms to allow him to be in the same house as his wife’s firearms.
They attached to the motion an affidavit, dated July 10, in which the officer’s wife swore that when she brings her service weapons home after work, they’re kept “secure.”
“I, Brittany Hernandez, a licensed peace officer in the State of Texas and police officer for the City of Castroville, carry firearms both on and off duty,” Alejandro’s wife wrote. “When not at work, I secure my firearms at my residence.”
The district attorney’s office agreed to amend Alejandro’s bond conditions.
“The State has agreed (to) allow Mr. Alejandro to live in his own home while his wife ... continues to own and possess her firearms,” according to a court filing by Alejandro’s lawyers.
It’s been five months since the three officers — Alejandro, Sgt. Alfred Flores and Officer Nathaniel Villalobos — were arrested on suspicion of murder in the death of Perez, a 46-year-old mother of four.
Police were sent to her Southwest Side apartment complex on June 23 after a neighbor called 911 to report that Perez had cut the wires to the complex’s fire alarm system. Perez, who had schizophrenia, was apparently in the midst of a mental health crisis.
Officers found Perez outside talking to firefighters and approached her. She was cooperative at first and gave the officers her name, date of birth and apartment number. She said she cut the wires because the FBI was eavesdropping on her.
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. More than an hour later, Alejandro, Flores and Villalobos, who’d been called in as backup, fired into Perez’s apartment after she allegedly ran toward a closed patio door while swinging a hammer.
All three officers fired between 12 and 16 rounds at Perez, killing her.
Police Chief William Mcmanus said Perez did not pose a threat to the officers because she was on the other side of a locked glass door. He said Alejandro, Flores and Villalobos flouted police training and policy.
After detectives consulted with the DA’S Office, the officers were arrested. It was the first time in recent memory San Antonio police officers were charged with murder for an on-duty shooting. Bail was set at $100,000 for each of them.
Mcmanus said the decision to file murder charges shook the police department like an earthquake — “a 10 on the Richter scale.”
Soon after their arrests, the three were suspended from the force without pay. Now, they are free on bond while awaiting indictment, a formal accusation of a crime.
Prosecutors will present evidence to a Bexar County grand jury, which will decide whether there is probable cause to indict the officers. Probable cause means that a reasonable person would believe a crime was committed. At least nine out of 12 grand jurors must vote to issue what is called a true bill of indictment.