30-year-old Karen Martinez was charged with terroristic threats against a peace officer. Her case was dismissed Monday, citing lack of evidence.
SAN ANTONIO — One month ago, San Antonio Police shot a woman during a confrontation on the west side.
Officers believed she was armed. They later found out she wasn’t.
30-year-old Karen Martinez faced two counts of terroristic threats against a peace officer.
Now, we’re learning all charges were dismissed. Online court records cite a lack of evidence.
KENS 5 spoke exclusively with Martinez, who is now out of jail. She interviewed with us via FaceTime from her hospital bed.
“I just want to disappear. They made my life hell.”
Martinez struggles to remember what led up to the shooting in the early hours of December 16 on Loma Park Drive.
“I’m assuming I had possibly an episode,” she explained. “I’ve never had one before, but I do suffer from depression and anxiety.”
She said friends are filling in the gaps for her. They told Martinez she and her ex-boyfriend went to his parent’s house on Loma Park Drive together after she had trouble with her car.
“The only thing I can think of is we might have argued, and then from there…it just escalated,” she said. “He decided instead of calling my family or I don’t know, like taking me home or something, he just decided to call the cops.”
SAPD initially reported Martinez was trying to break into the home. Officers also said she made suicidal threats and told police she had a gun and a knife.
“I know I don’t remember, but I know I would never do something that dangerous, especially to hurt my family,” said Martinez. “We’ve already been through the loss of a sibling. I don’t want my mom to go through that again.”
Authorities claim Martinez broke free from a taser, then ran toward them. That’s when officer Andrew Davis fired multiple shots, hitting Martinez twice — one bullet through the side that lodged in her spine and another bullet to the chest.
“I do remember just getting hit with a bullet and when the cop rushed to me…I just kept asking him, ‘Why did you shoot me? What did I do to you? I don’t have any weapons.'”
Martinez said she blacked out and woke up two weeks later in the hospital.
“What’s crazy to me is last week there was a man inside an HEB…[Police] calmly talked to him to get out and put his weapon up. Yet I had zero weapons on me,” said Martinez.
An arrest affidavit didn’t mention Martinez running at officers. It also stated no weapon was found.
Saturday, Martinez was surprised when a jail deputy told her she was free to go. Two days later, her attorney told her why.
“By the grace of God, Monday she did give me a phone call stating that everything was dismissed. I have zero warrants for my arrest. There’s zero evidence of me charging towards the cops, so obviously they looked at the body footage,” said Martinez. “I didn’t rush at anybody. I didn’t threaten an officer. I would never jeopardize myself like that either.”
Right now, Martinez is concerned about her kidneys. One of the bullets pierced her kidney, which is why she’s been undergoing dialysis since the shooting.
She’s awaiting a second surgery, she says, to remove a tube connected to her stomach.
With bullet fragments still lodged in her spine, with the help of a back brace, Martinez is still able to walk.
“I’ve been waking up with nightmares. I wake up with shocks on my body,” she added, saying they’re contributing factors of PTSD and trauma from the shooting.
She expects to return home within the next two weeks. In the meantime, her family has started a GoFundMe page to help pay for medical expenses.
“They didn’t only embarrass me, defame me…they separated me from my family,” said Martinez. “I don’t feel comfortable at all being around an officer. I just don’t feel safe. I just want to be in my house. All day, every day.”
It’s against SAPD criteria to release body cam footage of domestic violence calls, which is why we haven’t seen the video.
When we inquired about any potential investigation involving Officer Davis, SAPD told us, “As for all officer involved shootings, the officer was placed on administrative leave, per protocol. The SAPD Shooting Team and the Internal Affairs Unit will conduct separate but concurrent inquiries. Their findings will be forwarded to the Bexar County District Attorney’s office for an independent review.”
KENS 5 has reached out to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office multiple times for more details about the dismissal, but we haven’t heard back.
“They need to know where they went wrong. They need to train their police officers better to not just take out your gun,” Martinez added. “I just wish that they did release the bodycam footage because I need to know exactly what happened that night as well.”