SAPD Sgt shoots woman for no donut

Black Officer Shoots & kills white woman - No mention of any Hate Crimes
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Dashcam video contradicts SAPD’s narrative that woman pointed weapon at sergeant prior to being fatally shot Third time in 2 years that Chief McManus provided info on fatal officer shooting that was later refuted

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police dash camera video obtained contradicts the department’s long-held narrative that a woman shot and killed by an SAPD sergeant in early 2019 had pointed a weapon at him prior to being shot.

The account of the March 2019 shooting of Hannah Westall in the parking lot of a North Side shopping center is the third time since October 2018 that information provided by Chief William McManus about a fatal shooting involving his officers was later refuted by video or had to be corrected by McManus himself.

“Approached the woman, gave her some commands. She very slowly turned around, pulled the gun, and pointed it at the sergeant,” said McManus while briefing the media in the parking lot of the Huebner Commons on March 20, 2019.

Dash camera video of the shooting, however, shows Westall repeatedly being shot and the weapon falling behind her without it ever pointing at the officer.

The officer who fired at Westall, later identified as SAPD Sergeant David Perry, happened to be in the parking lot and assigned himself to the call after a dispatcher received a 911 call for a distraught woman with a possible machine gun tucked in her back waistline, SAPD records show.

The weapon carried by Hannah Westall turned out to be a non-functional replica of an Uzi submachine gun.

A media advisory released by SAPD’s public information office two days after the fatal shooting included the same narrative about a weapon being raised and pointed at Perry, but acknowledged the weapon in Westall’s possession turned out to be a non-functional replica of a handheld machine gun.

“The replica is visually indistinguishable from a fully functional gun,” the media advisory stated.

An attorney representing Westall’s family attempted to settle the case earlier this year without a lawsuit being filed, but records obtained by the Defenders show in late June the city attorney’s office rejected the offer.

“While the incident is tragic, it appears that the officer’s actions were reasonable based on the available information,” wrote Deputy City Attorney Deborah Klein.

“I believe it’s spin to get the media attention off of SAPD. And if families don’t ask and people don’t ask questions, they’re not going to tell different. And they will work everything to continue with that narrative,” Westall’s mother, Marlo Ondrej, told the Defenders in her first public comments since her daughter’s death.

Ondrej said a family member who viewed Westall’s body at a funeral home, prior to her burial, claimed the bullet wounds did not match what McManus said at the scene or what a detective had told the family a day after the shooting.

“And that’s when we realized the narrative was off and wrong and we were not being told the facts,” said Ondrej. “I did feel as a family I deserved the right to know what happened to my daughter and from everything I’ve been hearing and my own research and reaching out to different people, I was finding a whole different scenario that was given to me.”

The attorney hired by Westall’s family, Adam Cortez, said their preference was to avoid further press coverage and keep it a private matter, but that they felt compelled to release videos and documents handed over by SAPD after the city refused to address issues the family claims the shooting revealed or to “make amends” for Westall’s death.

“It’s not at all what happened. To say it’s a false narrative is awfully kind when you have video evidence that completely contradicts your statement. That’s not a false narrative. A false narrative is when you’re mistaken. That’s an outright lie and nothing is being done about it,” said Cortez, who added he believes he will have to eventually file a federal lawsuit against the department on the family’s behalf.

Near the end of McManus’ briefing, which remains on the department’s Facebook page, the chief was challenged by a KSAT reporter about whether Westall had actually pointed a weapon at Perry. McManus said, “I can’t tell you exactly what the sequence of events was, but I am told she reached her hand. I don’t know how far she got with it. That’s unknown.” The comment came about a minute before the end of the briefing and after some members of the assembled media had walked away.

The narrative that Westall pulled a firearm from her waistline and pointed it at Perry was also included in the department’s in-custody death report submitted to the Texas Attorney General’s Office.