The Bexar County District Attorney's Office will not charge a man in a shootout with SWAT cops. The shooting was June 16. It happened at an apartment complex on Jones Maltsberger Road. Two people got hurt.
Police say four SWAT cops went to the complex that day. They had a warrant to arrest 35 year old Roman Xavier Pena. The warrant was for a gun case. Cops also had a warrant to search his home. Police say they saw Pena sitting in his parked car. He had a gun. Police say Pena shot first. Two people got hit by gunfire in the fight that followed.
Cops later shared video from their body cameras. The video came from the scene that day.
The DA's office now says it will not move forward with the case. The DA's office says one of its own cops fired first. That cop was in a plain car. It had no police markings. He did not clearly show he was a cop. He did not do that before he pulled the trigger. Under Texas law, that is a problem. It raises doubt about who had the right to defend himself that day.
The San Antonio Police Officers' Association is angry. Johnny Perez runs the union. He said the news came as a shock.
"It's just disappointment on my end and just for our members as a whole," Perez said.
Perez said cops had been warned about Pena. The warning came before the raid.
"It was a SWAT operation, they were told that this gentleman had been making threats to shoot anybody that he came in contact with," Perez said.
Perez does not think the video clearly shows who shot first. He worries about the message this sends to other suspects.
"I don't want the community or any suspect to think that, hey, if I tell them that I didn't know they were police and I shoot at him, I'll be okay," he said.
Pena is not free of legal trouble. A grand jury in Bexar County charged him on September 14. He faces two felony charges. A felony is a serious crime. It can mean years in prison if he is found guilty. Those two charges come from a different case. They have nothing to do with the June 16 shootout.
Pena still faces those two felony charges from the new case. Everyone is presumed innocent until proved otherwise.