SAN ANTONIO – A man who was shot by San Antonio police officers during a Jan. 5 incident at a West Side Motel has died, the Bexar County Sheriff Office confirmed.
The family of Jose Luis Iruegas, 45, made the decision to remove him from life support at 9:22 p.m. Sunday night and he was pronounced dead by University Health System staff at 9:36 p.m., BCSO said in a statement on Monday.
“This death has been reported to TCJS as an in-custody death, as Iruegas was booked into the Bexar County Jail when he passed away. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs Unit, Criminal Investigations Division, and the Precinct 2 Constables Office are conducting an investigation into this death,” BCSO officials said.
Iruegas was shot by police after he allegedly threatened people with a gun and then pointed that gun at two officers.
Officer Joshua Nicholson who has been with SAPD for 6 years, and Ryan Tovar, a 7-year veteran of the force were the responding officers who shot Iruegas, according to an SAPD spokesperson.
The gun collected at the scene was later identified as a BB gun, charging paperwork obtained by KSAT Investigates shows.
Iruegas was booked by proxy on two felony charges of Terroristic Threats Against a Police Officer.
According to SAPD, they were called to the Luxury Inn in the 1400 block of Culebra Road at about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 4 for reports of a man threatening people with a gun in the parking lot.
When officers arrived, witnesses told them that the man had gone to his room on the second floor of the motel.
When Nicholson knocked on the door and announced that he was a police officer, Iruegas opened the door with the gun in his hand, SAPD officials said.
Nicholson ordered Iruegas to drop the gun, but he lifted his arm and pointed the gun at the officer instead.
Both Nicholson and Tovar opened fire on Iruegas, striking him multiple times.
The officers are on administrative duty pending investigations by the SAPD Shooting Team and the Internal Affairs Unit, SAPD said. The findings of the investigation will be sent to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office for review.
Bexar County Court records show that Iruegas has a criminal record for arrests that include assault, burglary theft and drug possession dating back to 1998.
The motel where the shooting took place has seen its share of police activity in recent months.
In July, members of the U. S. Marshal’s Lone Star Fugitive Task Force kicked in the door of a second-floor room at the Luxury Inn and arrested capital murder suspect Juan Antonio Reyes, 24.
Since June of last year, SAPD officers also have been called to the motel more than half a dozen times, mostly for disturbances.