SAN ANTONIO – Neighbors say they had called police to a West Side neighborhood multiple times in the weeks before a man was fatally shot by five San Antonio police officers.
The calls stemmed from concerns about the man’s behavior, neighbors said. San Antonio Police Department Acting Chief Jesse Salame confirmed officers had been called to the area multiple times in the last month for similar situations.
The 69-year-old man was waving a loaded handgun and did not comply with commands to drop it, police said. There is no evidence he fired his weapon.
The five officers identified in the shooting include:
- Luis Cortes Garcia (less than 1 year of service)
- Richard Julien (less than 1 year of service)
- John Reyes (less than 3 years of service)
- Aldamaris Flores (less than 3 years of service)
- Joshua Rodriguez (less than 5 years of service)
At least one neighbor, who asked not to be identified out of concern for his safety, said the outcome should have been different.
“They’ve called the police several times,” he said. “It’s ridiculous that somebody gets killed over situations like this.”
“He should have been tased, properly controlled, safely controlled — and taken, not to jail, to a mental hospital to make sure that he has the proper medication that he needs,” the neighbor said.
The shooting is renewing scrutiny of how San Antonio handles 911 calls involving possible mental health crises.
SAPD recorded 28,800 mental health-related 911 calls in 2025 — a slight decrease from prior years, but still a significant burden on the system. More than half of those calls are still answered by patrol officers.
The city does operate SA CORE — the San Antonio Community Outreach and Resiliency Effort — three teams each made up of a mental health unit officer, a fire department paramedic and a clinician, providing 24-hour coverage across the city. But those teams are only dispatched on lower-acuity calls — when no weapon is involved, and the situation has not escalated.
In January, KSAT reported the city was exploring a pilot program with the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council and the Center for Health Care Services to triage mental health calls at the 911 level — potentially routing low-acuity calls to a clinician over the phone, without dispatching police or EMS at all.
On Monday, city Chief Mental Health Officer Jessie Higgins said that program is still not ready.
“It’s still something that we’re looking at right now, and we’re still exploring options on that,” Higgins said. “It’s not something that I have the details on.”
Higgins said neighbors don’t have to wait for a crisis to escalate before reaching out for help. She recommended calling the SAPD non-emergency line at 210-207-7273 if they’re concerned about someone’s behavior but don’t believe there is an immediate danger.
“It is totally OK to call the SAPD non-emergency line,” Higgins said. “You could ask for the mental health unit to respond. All of that information would get relayed when they’re figuring out who to dispatch to that call.”
If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. For mental health crises that are not emergencies, residents can also call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), the NAMI Greater San Antonio Warm Line at 210-939-9999, or the Center for Health Care Services crisis line at 210-223-SAFE.
SAPD has not confirmed whether the man killed Saturday had a diagnosed mental health condition. Salame was unavailable for an interview Monday. KSAT reached out to the department for comment.
The investigation is ongoing.
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