POLICE KILLING

TX Officers Charged for Allegedly Shooting Woman in Mental Health Crisis

The officers were allegedly responding to reports a woman had illegally damaged a fire alarm.

Three police officers in Texas are facing murder charges after they all allegedly fired on and killed a woman in her apartment. The Associated Press reported that the trio of officers—Eleazar Alejandro, Nathaniel Villalobos, and Alfred Flores—shot at and killed 46-year-old Melissa Perez while she was in the throes of a mental health crisis. “They placed themselves in a situation where they used deadly force which was not reasonable given all the circumstances as we now understand them,” the San Antonio police chief said according to the AP. The police department suspended all three officers before they were arrested. The officers allegedly responded to suspicions that Perez had illegally disabled a fire alarm and shot her at least twice after she threw a candlestick and brandished a hammer at them.