XPost: alt.law-enforcement, sac.politics, sat.general
XPost: talk.politics.guns

On 24 Aug 2023, Dago DeSantis <nowomr@protonmail.com> posted some news:uc7r6s$3gou0$3@dont-email.me:

Just kill him and be done with it.

SAN ANTONIO – This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The man accused of shooting two San Antonio Police officers and injuring a third on Thursday had been let out of jail twice in the past year.

Jesse Garcia, 28, now faces eight new felony charges for aggravated
assault of a public servant, aggravated robbery, and aggravated
kidnapping. He is still being held in the Bexar County Jail with bonds
totaling $4.33 million.

It’s not the first time that Garcia, who has a criminal record stretching
back to his teens, has been in jail. Though, more recently, it has been
easier to get out.

In September 2022, Garcia was arrested for unauthorized use of a vehicle
and drug possession, but he was released after posting $17,000 worth of
bonds.

He was arrested again in June for car burglary, evading arrest in a
vehicle, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. That time, he
posted another $40,000 worth of bonds.

However, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said that after the bondsman who covered Garcia’s June arrest lost contact with him, the bonds
were doubled and new warrants issued in early August.

SAPD was trying to arrest Garcia on those warrants when they said he
turned his rifle on officers. Police said two officers were hit with
gunfire and are still in the hospital. A third, who was hit with debris,
has already been released.

Chief William McManus tweeted about Garcia’s multiple arrests Friday
morning and questioned “Why wasn’t he in jail? Why were’t (sic) his bonds increased?”


“I don’t think that’s an issue of falling through the cracks. I mean, this
is just the bond system that we have right now is incredibly frustrating
for us. I know it’s frustrating for law enforcement. I believe it’s
frustrating for the public,” said Bexar County District Attorney’s Office
First Attorney Christian Henricksen in a Friday afternoon press
conference. “Until we have a system that’s more based on risk, where
judges can look at it, they can look at the defendant, they can look at
the case, they can look at the criminal history and have more authority to remand people when they’re clearly dangerous, then this is going to
continue to happen.”

Henricksen said that initial bonds are set by the magistrate judges, not
the DA’s office, and prosecutors had recommended higher bonds for Garcia’s September arrest than what he received.

When Garcia was arrested again in June, though, Henricksen said
prosecutors presented evidence of his prior arrests and pending cases, and
the judge handed down higher bonds than normal for those offenses.

However, it has also been 11 months Garcia’s September arrest, but the
DA’s office hasn’t indicted him yet. Pressed on why that hasn’t happened, Henricksen said “there seems to be a reason, but I don’t really want to
comment on that until I’m certain that I know exactly what the answer to
that question is.”

And despite his second arrest, prosecutors did not push to have his
original bond revoked, though Henricksen said they could have pushed for
it. Typically, he said, pretrial services will notify a judge that someone
has violated their original bond with new offenses, though he did not know
if that happened in this case.

“Maybe they (prosecutors) were relying on pretrial,” Henricksen said, “but
they could have filed motions to increase, and that did not happen.”

CRIMINAL HISTORY
Texas Department of Public Safety and Bexar County court records show
Garcia has a criminal record stretching back into his teenage years. He
has convictions as an adult for giving a police officer fake identifying information in 2015, drug possession in 2017, and being a felon in
possession of a firearm in 2019.

His online DPS records also includes mugshots from 2011 and 2012, when he
was 15 and 16 years old, respectively. The DPS records do not detail any charges he received as a minor, but they show he spent time in juvenile detention from the time he was 17 years old until his 19th birthday in
2014.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2023/08/25/suspected-shooter-of-2-san- antonio-police-officers-was-arrested-released-twice-in-last-year/

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