SAN ANTONIO – A convicted sex offender escorted into a city park by Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies as authorities searched for a missing mother and her son has been arrested on a felony charge after investigators said he failed to report his home address on the state’s sex offender registry.
Xavier Lopez, 31, was arrested on June 19 for failing to comply with lifetime sex offender registration, Bexar County court records show.
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San Antonio police investigators in March determined that Lopez did not reside at the residence in the 3400 block of West Commerce Street he had listed on his annual sex offender registration weeks earlier, an arrest warrant states.
An SAPD detective on March 5 visited the home to confirm Lopez’s listed address, records show.
However, the current resident of the home told police he did not know anyone named Xavier Lopez, and no one with that name lived there, records show.
The resident had been living there for the past three months, according to records.
SAPD investigators filed the case against Lopez on March 13, and a warrant was issued for his arrest on May 1, arrest affidavit records show.
Lopez was indicted by a Bexar County grand jury in 2020 on two counts of sexual assault after committing sex crimes on an unconscious man, court records show.
Lopez pleaded no contest to the charges in late 2021 and was sentenced to eight years probation in early January 2022, according to court records. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Sex Offender Registry.
Lopez was rearrested in March 2023, days after a motion to revoke probation was filed in his case.
Lopez failed to comply with the requirements of his community supervision and failed to follow instructions for a sex offender treatment program, court records show.
Last June, a judge continued Lopez on probation until January 2030, allowing Lopez to stay out of prison. That could change following his latest arrest, however.
A motion to revoke probation in Lopez’s sex assault case was issued May 24, and he was ordered by a judge to be held without bail, court records show.
Case filed days before Lopez appeared at park during search for missing woman and her son
Lopez was captured on television cameras at Tom Slick Park on March 19 as BCSO investigators searched for Savannah Kriger and her 3-year-old son, Kaiden.
The bodies of Kriger and her son were found that morning in a ditch area of the far West Side park shortly after an AMBER Alert was issued.
Investigators now contend Savannah Kriger shot her son and then shot herself.
Footage gathered by a KSAT photojournalist that morning showed Lopez getting out of a large sport utility vehicle, unloading items from the back, and standing a few feet away as loved ones wept in each other’s arms.
Footage gathered by another San Antonio television station showed the SUV that Lopez was in received an escort onto park property by a BCSO all-terrain vehicle.
The SUV Lopez was riding in had decals for Statewide Emergency Response Team, a local group that provides water, sports drinks and even bathroom facilities for first responders at various scenes, including fires, standoffs and searches.
Lopez and another man, Xavier Gonzales, filed paperwork with the county in late November to do business as a Statewide Emergency Response Team, listing the group as a nonprofit.
The two men abandoned the DBA in late December, according to county records. Gonzales then filed a separate DBA that same day as the sole owner of the Statewide Emergency Response Team, county records show.
City ordinance prohibits Lopez from being in city parks
Lopez told KSAT earlier this year he believes the agencies that he assisted at scenes were aware of his criminal background, and his conviction does not prohibit him from going to city parks because his victim was not a child.
Though the state’s sex offender registry does not ban sex offenders from city parks, a San Antonio city ordinance in place since 2014 does ban them.
Chapter 22, Article XI of the San Antonio municipal code prohibits anyone on the sex offender registry from entering a city park or loitering within 300 feet of one. The code states that a person found in violation of the ordinance can be cited with a Class C misdemeanor.
KSAT, however, could find no records showing that Lopez had faced any criminal charges for entering Tom Slick Park during the Kriger search.
Asked about Lopez being at the search, a BCSO spokeswoman earlier this year said the Statewide Emergency Response Team arrived at the scene unannounced and offered resources, but its members were restricted to the outside perimeter only.
After KSAT Investigates asked BCSO about the Lopez incident, the agency tightened its protocols at scenes. All requests to provide assistance are now routed through BCSO dispatch and handled by the Bexar County Office of Emergency Management, a BCSO official told KSAT earlier this year.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.