Karen Martinez is sitting in jail with a bullet lodged in her spine for allegedly making terroristic threats against police.
SAN ANTONIO — Early in the morning of Dec. 16, San Antonio police arrived to a home on the west side where authorities say a 30-year-old woman went to her ex-boyfriend’s home, made suicidal threats and notified officers that she had a gun as well as a knife.
That confrontation culminated in gunfire, but not on the part of Karen Martinez. When she “began to run in the direction of other officers,” SAPD officials reported, one of those officers fired his weapon multiple times, hitting her.
In the ensuing investigation, however, police reported updated information. As detailed in an affidavit outlining why she was arrested for allegedly threatening police: “No knife or blade was found on the defendant.” Records didn’t mention officials finding a gun, either.
Now, Martinez is sitting in the Bexar County jail, a bullet still lodged in her spine, while loved ones call attention to what they call a “major injustice” at the hands of the San Antonio Police Department. They believe she was in the middle of a mental health episode when police arrived to confront her and wonder why officers didn’t consider calling SAPD’s Mental Health Unit, especially since Martinez threatened to take her own life just moments before police arrived.
‘So much damage’
“There are good cops, but there are also bad cops,” said Dey Martinez, Karen’s older sister. “I’m not saying that he was a bad cop, but also I don’t think he made the right decision.”
December was already proving to be a difficult time for Karen, a fitness influencer whose family says was working to build her brand. According to her sister, Karen was on leave from a job with JP Morgan Chase, prioritizing her mental health and seeing a psychiatrist.
“She does suffer from depression,” Dey Martinez said. “She does suffer from bipolar disorder and anxiety. It’s all medically diagnosed.”
Then came the morning of Dec. 16, when police say Karen was trying to break into her ex’s home along the 200 block of Loma Park Drive, according to a preliminary report. When officers arrived, they say she began making suicidal threats using a “blade-like object” in her hand. She also said she had a firearm.
An officer tried detaining her with a Taser, but authorities say she was able to break free from it before running at them.
That’s when the shots rang out.
“You could have tackled her instead of going from Tasing to shooting,” Dey said. “Their officers are supposed to be trained to react, responding a reasonable manner in an emergency. She’s 5’4″. She’s a woman. They were grown men. They were armed with vests on them…If the mental health unit would have been called in, it could all have been avoided.”
The arrest affidavit was released 10 days later and tells a different story from SAPD’s preliminary report. It doesn’t say Karen ran towards officers. It also says no weapon was found.
And instead of her being shot once, it says she was shot twice by the same officer.
“(It caused) so much damage to her lungs, to her esophagus, to her intestines, both the small and large,” Dey said. “The bullet was never removed. The bullet is still inside her.”
Karen was also put on dialysis due to damage to both of her kidneys.
At present, there aren’t any plans to remove the bullet. Dey said doctors informed the family that trying to remove the bullet would potentially cause more damage.
After a week in the hospital, Karen woke up. She’s now recovering in the Bexar County Jail and her loved ones are hiring an attorney.
“She doesn’t remember anything, anything at all,” Dey said in response to our question about why Karen told authorities she was armed. “I know when you go into a manic episode, you can black out and you don’t remember anything that you did or said.”
Martinez faces two counts of making a terroristic threat against a peace officer. Her bond has been set at $200,000.
Karen’s family set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for her medical bills on top of the thousands of dollars they don’t have to bail her out of jail.
Their call to action? Improved mental health training for police officers.
“It’s an injustice. Her quality of life is not gonna be the same,” said Dey. “We don’t want it to get swept under the rug. We want something to be done about it.”
The officer who shot her, Andrew Davis, has been with SAPD for three years and was placed on administrative duty after the incident. And while the department releases body camera footage for most shootings involving police, officials won’t share the video for the Dec. 16 incident, saying it doesn’t meet their criteria for public release.
