Retired SAPD detective who pulled gun on man outside Home Depot arrested, released on bond

John Schiller, 55, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon

John Schiller, 55, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. (KSAT)

SAN ANTONIOUpdate:

A former San Antonio police detective seen on video pointing a gun at a man during an altercation outside a far West Side Home Depot was arrested Friday evening.

John Schiller, 55, was taken into custody and released on a $25,000 bond overnight, police say.

He is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Original:

A felony assault warrant has been issued for former San Antonio police detective weeks after he was captured in cell phone videos pointing a gun at a man during a physical altercation outside a far West Side Home Depot.

John Schiller, 55, faces a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony.

Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed to the KSAT 12 Defenders late Wednesday that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Bexar County District Clerk officials confirmed the charge and the existence of the warrant Wednesday night, but declined to release a copy of it since Schiller had not been booked. As of Thursday morning, online jail records do not list Schiller as in custody.

FIRST REPORT: Retired SAPD detective pulled gun, punched man on video but hasn’t been formally charged, police report says

Schiller pulled the handgun Sept. 27 in the Home Depot parking lot located off Loop 1604 and Culebra road after believing another man had stolen his ex-wife’s cell phone, according to an SAPD incident report. The victim maintained that he found the cell phone and was working with its owner to return it.

Footage recorded by the victim on his cell phone shows Schiller pointing the gun at him before physically making contact with him.

“Get on the ground. Get on the ground now! Get on the (expletive) ground. You think I’m playing?” said Schiller as the cell phone video appears to show him push the man against a vehicle outside the store.

A second angle recorded by a person in a vehicle shows Schiller holding a handgun while he and the victim walk near the entrance of the store.

The police report noted that the man had a bloody lip and that Schiller punched him at one point during the altercation.

During the encounter, you can hear the man pleading with Schiller that he didn’t steal the phone.

The man told the Defenders earlier this month that he found the phone and an ID in the street in a neighborhood. Schiller’s ex-wife’s daughter had left the phone on the hood of a vehicle and drove off, according to the police report.

The victim said he was going to return the phone after stopping by Home Depot to pick up supplies for work. He said he answered the phone when it rang and told the person the same thing, according to the incident report.

The report says Schiller’s ex-wife and her daughter got in their cars and started tracking the phone after they realized it was missing. The woman called police and they told her to stop tracking the phone, according to the report.

The phone’s GPS led them to a store near Galm Road and Culebra Road, according to the daughter’s statement to police.

They say they saw the man but did not make contact with him “because they did not know for sure who had the phone,” the report says. Once they saw him drive off, they saw the phone’s location on the tracker start to move again," according to the report.

The man told police that he was on Culebra Road when Schiller’s ex-wife “started banging on his window in the middle of the street,” the report states. He said he started yelling at her because he didn’t know who she was.

The woman said she walked up to his vehicle and asked for her phone. She said that the man told her that “she was ungrateful and to get back into her vehicle,” according to the report.

The woman got back into her car and followed him to a corner store on Alamo Parkway and Culebra Road. She said she asked the man for her phone again and that he threw her phone at her feet and he took off, according to the incident report.

The man told police that he threw the woman’s phone and drove off until he arrived at the Home Depot.

He said he parked his van and Schiller approached him aggressively, the report states. The man said he started to record on his phone.

City of San Antonio officials confirmed earlier this month that Schiller was hired by SAPD in 1987 and retired from the department at the rank of detective in March 2019.

Texas Commission on Law Enforcement officials confirm Schiller has not had a commission with a law enforcement agency in this state since leaving SAPD.

No arrest was made at the scene, but Schiller’s gun, which was loaded, was taken in as evidence, the report states.


About the Authors:

Emmy-award winning reporter Dillon Collier joined KSAT Investigates in September 2016. Dillon's investigative stories air weeknights on the Nightbeat and on the Six O'Clock News. Dillon is a two-time Houston Press Club Journalist of the Year and a Texas Associated Press Broadcasters Reporter of the Year.

Brina is the Executive Producer of the NightBeat and KSAT Explains. She has been with KSAT since 2015. She is a Houston native and proud to call San Antonio home.