SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police officers searching for a domestic violence suspect instead detained a different man inside his Southeast Side home after the officers showed up at the wrong address, records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.
“It’s like the people you rely on to protect you and to keep you safe, they’re not the people that you can rely on anymore,” said Alex Delgado, who was detained by SAPD on Feb. 24.
Delgado said he was inside his home along with his girlfriend after 9 p.m. when officers appeared at his door.
Ring doorbell camera footage shows officers Rogelio Guillen and Cyreena Rodriguez just outside Delgado’s front door, while a third officer, later identified as Bless Achor, stood back shining a flashlight in Delgado’s eyes.
“The atmosphere is calm. I’m relaxed. I’m answering questions. I’m being compliant,” Delgado told KSAT.
Delgado, who described Achor as “very aggressive,” said the officers pushed him from the entryway into his home, with Achor and Guillen each grabbing one of his arms.
“And then Achor, he kicks my legs from underneath me. I fall. I land on both my knees and I’m on my hands. I didn’t expect them to basically attack me,” said Delgado.
He provided KSAT pictures taken after the incident showing bruising on his arm and an abrasion, bruising and swelling on one of his knees.
Officers handcuffed Delgado and then removed a handgun he was carrying on him at the time he was detained. Surveillance footage shows Delgado being led from the home in handcuffs as Guillen holds Delgado’s gun.
Delgado said officers eventually retrieved his identification from inside the home and determined he was not the person they were searching for.
“They didn’t apologize at all,” said Delgado, who added that the officers quickly moved next door without taking a statement from him.
Asked specifically about Achor’s actions, Delgado told KSAT, “This guy, to me, he’s deranged. He’s out of his mind. He’s out of control.”
An SAPD incident report noted that officers made contact with Delgado and his girlfriend after “mistaking their house” for the one they had been dispatched to, but does not state that a physical altercation took place.
The actual suspect, who had a warrant for repeatedly violating a court order, was named in an active protective order and was accused of breaking into a garage, but had left the residence by the time officers arrived, the incident report states.
No use of force reports on file
Delgado said SAPD officials eventually gave him the names of all three officers who responded to his home so that he could file a formal internal affairs complaint.
He described the process of filing the complaint as a “weird, rocky and unprofessional” experience, stating that he has only received limited information from IA since filing his complaint months ago.
After KSAT requested any supplementary or IA reports from the incident, an SAPD spokeswoman said via email that the reports were not releasable since there is an active internal affairs investigation taking place.
After KSAT made a separate request for a copy of any use-of-force reports from the incident, a city official responded that there were no responsive documents.
An SAPD spokesman told KSAT that nothing reported at the time of the incident met the criteria for a use-of-force report to be generated.
According to SAPD’s general manual, a use of force report must be written if:
- Any force is used on an individual by an officer greater than an open/empty hands control technique
- Any force used by an officer that causes injury to an individual
- Any force used by an officer that causes an individual to report injury to the officer
The spokesman confirmed that Guillen and Rodriguez were recent graduates from the academy and probationary officers at the time of the February incident.
Achor, who has worked for SAPD since 2019, has no disciplinary records in his personnel file.
SAPD officials last month asked the Texas Attorney General to block the release of 911 audio, body-worn camera footage and dashboard camera footage of the incident, claiming the records are elements of an open criminal investigation.
Officials also declined to make Chief William McManus available for an interview, citing the ongoing criminal case against the domestic violence suspect and the unrelated ongoing IA investigation into the incident at Delgado’s home.
Delgado told KSAT he recently installed additional surveillance cameras and locks on his property because he no longer feels safe from the police.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.