Bexar County Jail detention officer arrested after inmate attempted suicide

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – A detention officer spent Tuesday night on the other side of the bars at the Bexar county Jail after being arrested on a charge of tampering with a government document.

At a news conference early Wednesday, Sheriff Javier Salazar announced that deputy Sherman Andrews had been taken into custody without incident at his home following an internal investigation into the attempted suicide of an inmate Monday afternoon.

“He did not perform complete checks on the inmate around the time we found him attempting suicide,” Salazar said. “However, he did indicate on his logs that he had completed the checks.”

Salazar says the inmate, who had been booked Saturday on a drug charge, tried to hang himself Monday afternoon.  He remains in critical condition at a local hospital.  The sheriff says it’s not known whether proper cell checks would have prevented the inmate from trying to take his own life, but the deputy was in clear violation of jail procedures.

“This is something that we take seriously.  Clearly, this is not a decision that is reached lightly when we make the decision to take a deputy into custody, but it’s something that needs to be done,” he said.

Andrews had worked for BCSO since 2017.   Salazar says the deputy will be served with a notice of termination.

“This is the distasteful part of what we do, but it’s something that we demand of ourselves because the public demands it of us and certainly, they deserve to have an agency that does hold ourselves accountable,” the sheriff said.

Andrews was taken into custody without incident Tuesday at his home.

“To his credit, he admitted to it, but just because you admit to it doesn’t mean hands off,” said Salazar. If you admit to criminal activity around here, we’re going to place you in jail.”