SAN ANTONIO – Update: At an unrelated press conference Wednesday with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Javier Salazar was asked about the body camera video and if the arresting SAPD officers failed in their duties for a proper search.
“Clearly there’s never a circumstance where a gun should make it into a jail. So I mean, I think it’s clear that that gun was missed,” Salazar said. “I haven’t seen the video in question, you know I’m glad that the PD put it out there. But it’s the PD’s case and I can’t comment much more than beyond what I’ve done. But suffice it to say, absolutely the gun should have never made it to that point.”
When asked about his own deputies at the jail missing the weapon during Gonzales’s initial pat down there, Salazar said several fail safes should have caught it but did not.
“On the administrative side, absolutely. That’s something that we are looking into. And if and when somebody needs to be held accountable on our side of things for it, certainly not something I shy away from is administering discipline when the time comes,” Salazar said.
Newly released body-worn camera video shows multiple San Antonio Police Department officers failed to thoroughly search a teen who killed himself while being booked into the Bexar County jail earlier this month.
Jesus Gonzales, 19, was arrested on a felony warrant for a domestic violence-choking charge on March 3 at a restaurant he worked at in the 8100 block of Tezel Road.
Body camera video released by San Antonio police Wednesday shows one officer, Abdiel Munoz, asking Gonzales what his name was outside of the restaurant. When Gonzales asks ‘Why?’, Munoz tells Gonzales he has a warrant for his arrest.
Another officer, Grady Coleman, helps Munoz with the arrest. A third officer, Tristan Silva, is also at the scene.
The body camera video shows while Gonzales is handcuffed, he asks the officers repeatedly why he is under arrest. Eventually, Silva is heard answering, “For assault strangulation.”
Officers Coleman and Silva are seen escorting Gonzales towards Munoz’s patrol car, which was later used to take the suspect to jail.
Gonzales can also be heard asking more than a dozen times while in the parking lot to be taken to the restroom.
Munoz is heard on body camera video asking Gonzales if he has any weapons. At that point, Munoz begins searching Gonzales’s pockets, turning them inside out.
A supervising officer, Steven Bratina, arrives at the scene as Munoz is placing some of Gonzales’ belongings in a manila envelope.
At no point during his arrest, before or while he is inside an SAPD patrol car, is Gonzales patted down by any of the officers present, the video shows.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar on March 3 said Gonzales was patted down by a deputy when he first entered the jail. Gonzales was then strip-searched by another deputy as a part of sheriff’s department protocol, according to BCSO.
As a part of the strip search, Salazar said Gonzales complied with another deputy asking him to take his shirt and pants off. After Gonzales took his pants off, Salazar said he produced a gun under another layer of clothing and used it to take his own life.
KSAT 12 News previously reported that SAPD policy states: “Transporting officers are held accountable for any prisoner arriving at a detention facility or processing room with a weapon, dangerous object, or contraband on his person.”
Gonzales had previously been arrested in Bexar County for several charges including resisting arrest, assault with bodily injury of a family or household member, assault bodily injury of emergency service personnel, violation of bond or protective order and unlawfully carrying a weapon.
According to SAPD, all four responding officers — Bratina, Silva, Munoz, and Coleman — are all still on active duty. There is an internal affairs investigation currently underway.
SAPD officials on Wednesday declined to make Chief William McManus available for an interview, stating it is an active and open investigation.
If you or someone you know is dealing with self-harm or thoughts of self-harm, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline). Call or text 988 or chat at 988Lifeline.org, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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