SAN ANTONIO – Update: Luis Lopez, who worked for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office since Oct. 2018, has resigned following his arrest.
Sheriff Javier Salazar issued the deputy a dishonorable discharge, in accordance with Texas Commission on Law Enforcement guidelines, according to a statement sent to KSAT from BCSO spokesperson Adelina Simpson.
“BCSO Internal Affairs will be conducting a separate but concurrent administrative investigation into this incident, pending further criminal investigation of the case by SAPD,” Simpson said.
Original story: A Bexar County Sheriff’s Office deputy was arrested early Wednesday after San Antonio police investigators said he fired a pistol as many as 10 times outside his South Side home and then resisted officers while they were trying to take him into custody.
Deputy Luis Lopez, 41, was arrested around 3:20 a.m. Wednesday on charges of resisting arrest and discharging a firearm in a heavily populated area.
Lopez’s wife, 40-year-old Valerie Lopez, was also arrested and charged with interfering with a public servant.
According to preliminary information released by SAPD Wednesday morning, officers responded to a call for a disturbance at Lopez’s home. While en route, another call came in which indicated shots had been fired.
When officers arrived at the home in the 1800 block of W. Mally Blvd. they found approximately 10 spent pistol casings in the front yard in addition to freshly turned dirt which indicated bullets struck the ground.
Luis Lopez allegedly fired 10 shots in the air and toward the ground in front of his home, according to an SAPD source. An empty pistol holster was also discovered nearby.
The information from SAPD states that Luis Lopez was “obviously intoxicated” when officers arrived on scene and that he “passively resisted” when officers attempted to handcuff him.
When Luis Lopez was being walked to the patrol car he “became more violent and threw himself on the ground,” according to SAPD.
He smacked the body worn camera off of one of the SAPD officers and refused to let officers close the door on the patrol car “by sticking his feet out” and “banging his head against the windows,” the report states.
Valerie Lopez “pulled on one of the officers" while they were handcuffing her husband and “would not listen to officers’ instructions to go inside as they were struggling to take her husband into custody,” according to police.