SAN ANTONIO – The man who Bexar County Sheriff’s Office investigators said shot and killed himself on Sunday while running from deputies had a previous theft conviction and a long list of probation violations that brought him in and out of jail at least four times.
BCSO officials identified the suspect Wednesday as 26-year-old Sean Thomas Kelly.
Kelly pulled into a parking lot along FM 78 near Walzem Road just before 7 p.m. Sunday and then ran away, jumping a fence into a nearby neighborhood before jumping back onto the shoulder of the road, BCSO officials have said.
Kelly, who was described as wearing only boxer shorts and boots, then used a handgun to shoot himself, officials said.
Kelly died at the scene, according to officials.
Investigators said deputies were attempting to pull over Kelly because the license plate on the car he was driving came back as belonging to a stolen vehicle.
Suspect in BCSO in-custody death ran less than a block before fatally shooting himself
Court and San Antonio police records obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders on Thursday revealed that Kelly was arrested in March 2015, two months after breaking into a trailer at a storage unit on Nacogdoches Road and taking thousands of dollars’ worth of construction equipment.
Kelly pleaded no contest to the charge in February 2016, but was re-arrested in the case at least three times because of probation violations, court records show.
Officials ID man who fatally shot himself during BCSO pursuit
A neighbor of the home listed as Kelly’s last known address told KSAT 12 on Thursday that Kelly eventually moved to California and appeared to be in a better place after returning to San Antonio.
The neighbor declined to speak on camera.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, however, said during a press conference Tuesday that Kelly appeared to be in “a desperate situation” just before his death.
The Defenders have requested dash camera and body-worn camera footage related to Sunday’s incident.
Sheriff’s officials have not said what footage was recorded or whether they planned to make it public.