Karen Martinez says she was unarmed, suicidal, and standing outside a home on Loma Park Drive in December 2024 when a San Antonio police officer shot her twice, leaving her in a coma for an extended period and facing felony charges that were eventually dropped for lack of evidence. Nearly two years later, Martinez has filed a federal lawsuit against the officer who shot her, the city, the county, and her then-boyfriend and his father, alleging the shooting was the product of an unjustified rush to deadly force during a mental-health crisis.
Martinez's suit, filed against San Antonio police Officer Andrew Davis, Bexar County Sheriff's Office Deputy Alejandro Chacon, Felix Chacon, the City of San Antonio, and Bexar County, was first reported by the San Antonio Express-News. According to the lawsuit, the confrontation began after an argument between Martinez and Alejandro Chacon, her boyfriend at the time, that started when he drove her to his home instead of her own. Felix Chacon, who shares an address with his son, called 911 to report that Martinez was threatening to harm herself and had a gun and a knife, the lawsuit states.
Three San Antonio Police Department officers responded to the call, which police documents described as involving a woman threatening herself and others. Officer Zachary Clifton ordered Martinez to show her hands and deployed a Taser that had no effect, according to KSAT, which reported that Officer Lacy Huerta was also on scene. Police said at the time that Martinez was armed with a blade-like object and had made suicidal threats and slashing motions toward her own arm, and an initial police report said she ran toward officers before Davis drew his weapon.
Two Shots, One Coma, and No Weapon Found
Martinez's account, laid out in the lawsuit, directly contradicts the initial police version. She says she stepped away from the officers and that she possessed no knife, firearm, or other item that could have been mistaken for a weapon. An arrest affidavit filed December 26, 2024, stated that Martinez had threatened to kill herself but did not directly threaten police, even as it said Davis believed she had a knife before he discharged his firearm, striking her twice.
The discrepancies did not stop there. SAPD's initial public updates said Davis fired a single shot and struck Martinez once, but the detective's arrest affidavit — filed two days later — said he fired twice and hit her twice, per the same report from KSAT. No gun or knife was ever found at the scene, according to that account, and the outlet says it reached out to SAPD twice in December 2024 for clarification but received no response. Martinez was taken to University Hospital, where she underwent surgery and, per the lawsuit, remained in a coma for an extended period.
Charges Filed, Then Dropped for Insufficient Evidence
Despite the absence of any recovered weapon, Martinez was charged with two counts of making a terroristic threat against a peace officer — a state jail felony under Texas Penal Code § 22.07(c-1) that carries a potential sentence of 180 days to two years in state jail. A Bexar County judge set her bond at $200,000, and she remained in custody at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center until her release on January 11, 2025, the station reported.
The Bexar County District Attorney's Office dismissed both charges on January 10, 2025, citing insufficient evidence, according to court records reviewed by KSAT. Martinez's lawsuit alleges she was falsely accused of making threats in the first place, and that the charges were brought to cover up Davis's actions. She has requested a jury trial and is seeking compensation for past and future healthcare expenses along with damages for pain and suffering.
Claims Against the City, County, and the Chacons
Beyond her claims against Davis for excessive use of force, assault, and battery, Martinez accuses the City of San Antonio of practices and training deficiencies that allowed unnecessary escalation and unjustified deadly force against people experiencing mental-health crises. She separately alleges that Bexar County, through the sheriff's office, bears responsibility for the policies, training, supervision, and discipline governing its deputies — a reference to Alejandro Chacon, who remains employed as a sheriff's deputy, as does Davis with SAPD. Martinez also accuses Alejandro Chacon and Felix Chacon of intentional infliction of emotional distress and the city and county of negligent hiring, training, and supervision.
The City of San Antonio said through its city attorney's office that it is carefully reviewing the allegations and will respond through the legal process, adding that it will vigorously defend its police training and policies in court, per the Express-News. Bexar County declined to comment, and Felix Chacon was unreachable for comment, the paper reported.
Meeting the High Bar for a Federal Civil Rights Claim
To hold the city and county liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Martinez's legal team must satisfy the so-called Monell doctrine, proving that an unconstitutional official policy, a widespread custom, or a deliberate training failure directly caused the harm — not simply that an individual officer acted wrongly, since municipalities cannot be held vicariously liable for employees' actions alone. That is a demanding standard, and it puts Martinez's training-and-policy allegations at the center of whether her suit against the government entities can succeed.
The case lands amid continued scrutiny of how San Antonio police handle mental-health emergencies. The city expanded its SA CORE crisis response program — which pairs an SAPD officer, an SAFD paramedic, and a mental health clinician — to 24/7 citywide coverage in July 2024, according to Texas Public Radio. Even so, standard patrol officers still respond to roughly 85% of mental-health 911 calls in the city, since specialized teams handle only about 14 to 15% of the annual volume.
Martinez's lawsuit follows another closely watched case, the June 2023 fatal shooting of this earlier Hoodline report detailed, in which three SAPD officers were charged with murder after firing into Melissa Perez's apartment during a schizophrenic episode. And just last week, San Antonio police fatally shot a man who advanced with kitchen knives during a psychiatric emergency, a case that again underscored how often standard patrol officers, rather than specialized crisis teams, remain the default responders to psychiatric emergencies citywide.
Citywide crime statistics presented by SAPD in February 2025 showed overall crime dropped 5.9% in 2024 compared to the previous year, with violent crime down 2.4%, trends Police Chief William McManus attributed in part to hot-spot policing and faster emergency response times. Those broader numbers offer little resolution for Martinez's case, which remains pending as her attorneys press claims against both the individual officer and the government entities responsible for training him.
