Man killed by Bexar County deputies during mental health call

BEXAR COUNTY, Tex. (KTSA News) — A man was shot by a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy on the county’s far west side Tuesday during what the sheriff called a mental health call.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said this was the second time deputies visited the home in the 11000 block of Liberty Field Tuesday and had been to the house multiple times recently before that.

“He was obvious in mental health crisis.  Obviously, his family, who cares for him very much, kept calling us out here to try to get him some help,” Salazar said.

The sheriff said two veteran deputies and a trainee made contact with the man.  Salazar said they spent 30 minutes talking to the suspect connecting with him about his issues.  When they determined it was time to get him some mental health, the man refused.

The deputies then used tasers multiple times with little to no success.  At one point, the man grabbed a deputy’s taser, but later let go when another deputy intervened.

Salazar said the deputies had a hold of the man when he went for a handgun that was in his waist.  The deputies tried the taser again with little effect.

One of the veteran deputies then shot the man twice in the chest, killing him.

The suspect in the case was a 31-year-old combat veteran who Salazar said was an African-American.  He was said to have been suicidal and despondent after the recent loss of family members.

“I wanted to watch the body camera video. So I was able to watch some of the body camera video from the incident and it’s heart-wrenching to see the deputies going through so much to save a life and in the end, this had to happen,” Salazar told reporters. “It’s unfortunate that it ended with the death of the suspect. But, as I mentioned, the investigation continues and we’ll make sure we get out as much update and as much fact as possible.”

The deputies will be standard administrative leave and then administrative duty while the investigation continues.