SAN ANTONIO – A mother is outraged at the San Antonio Police Department after an officer accidentally shot and killed her 18-year-old son.
"It was like 1 in the morning when I got a call saying my son was shot," said Patricia Slack, the mother of Charles Roundtree.
Roundtree was in the line of fire when officers, who were responding to an assault call in the 200 block of Roberts Street, ended up shooting at a 24-year-old man they say was pulling a gun out of his waistband.
"They just went in there and opened fire on innocent kids," Slack said. "No matter what the house was called, or the area it was in, they are still kids. They don't deserve to die. No kid deserves to die."
Slack said it was a while before officials told her anything.
"We couldn't see the body," Slack said. "I found out he was still dead in the house when they were saying he was at the hospital, so I felt like they never tried to save him or anything. They just left him there."
Slack said she wants the officer who pulled the trigger to be held responsible for his actions.
"I want him and his family to go through what we are going through now," Slack said. "I want him to get the death penalty so his family can feel like how I am feeling. I know that is sad to say, but I am hurting. That is my son. I can't see him anymore. That officer still has a life to go back to."
Slack said her son was a great man.
"My son was loved by many," she said. "He never would have harmed anybody. For him to go out the way he did because of something they didn't know what they were doing is just wrong."
Slack said she wants nothing more than for that officer, who is currently on administrative duty, to pay for Roundtree's death, which she says she will never forgive him for.
"That is my firstborn," Slack said. "You can't ever forget something like that. That is something that is going to stick with you the rest of your life. I can't forgive them. I am not going to lie and say that I will, because I will not."
Even though Roundtree is gone, Slack said she knows he is in a better place.
"It hurts, but he is with his grandmother right now," she said. "He always wanted to be with her. I know if he could speak to any of us again one more time, he would tell everyone to just be yourself. Just be yourself. That is exactly what he lived by, and that is all he ever said."
