Texas Inmate Death Leads to Questions and Changes?

There are just some stories you don't expect to see coming out of a Texas jail. One of those is that a shooting has occurred. That is exactly what happened recently in San Antonio.

An inmate was taken into custody over the weekend. The suspect, who has yet to be identified was arrested on a domestic violence charge. He was searched on scene and then placed inside a patrol car. That quick search did not produce any type of weapon.

Get our free mobile app

When he arrived at Bexar County Jail he was handed off to personnel at the jail. Upon arrival, all inmates take part in a strip search and also go through a metal detector once they are processed. While waiting for him to process they decided to start the strip search.

During this, the inmate was removing his clothes when he got to his pants. According to Sheriff Javier Salazar, he talked to My San Antonio News and said:

Clearly, a weapon was missed. In this instance, this prisoner, from what I've seen, is on video literally the entire time he was with us... all we can assume at this point is that he came into the facility with the weapon, hidden under several layers of clothing.

As the pants were being removed, he was holding an unseen weapon inside his baggy basketball shorts. That weapon was finally spotted and the deputy ran out of the room. That is when the suspect discharged one round from the weapon and killed himself.

From the time the suspect entered the jail and until his death this took under six minutes. Of course, there is an investigation going on. They will also determine if their procedures at the jail need to change.

This is the first time a weapon ever made it this far into the facility. There may be some changes coming to make sure something like this never happens again.