Third Inmate Murdered at the Bexar County Jail, Sheriff Failing Miserably



Inmate murdered at the Bexar County Detention Center
Bexar County Jail

Inmate Stabbed to Death in Front of Officers

(TX) – A gang member inmate was stabbed to death on Sunday by fellow gang members. The incident occurred when inmate Vincent Garcia asked to speak to the unit officer. Once away from his cell mates, he told the officer he was not comfortable with them, but refused to say more. The cadet, who was in training in the unit’s control room, saw a door had been opened. The two cell mates rushed out and began attacking the third inmate.

The cadet opened the control room door so the unit officer could run in and they watched what they thought was a fight. The victim inmate got away from his attackers and fled through the unit’s door. The cadet closed the door behind him to keep the attackers within the unit.  The Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) arrived and took control of the situation. They saw that Vincent Garcia had been stabbed multiple times in his upper chest. He did not survive the attack.

Third Inmate on Inmate Murder

This is the third inmate on inmate murder that has occurred in less than three years. That is an astronomical increase from any other administration. In 2019 Shandrick Van Anthony Buckley stomped another inmate to death. Buckley, who is a Black man, was in jail for murder after beating a man to death. A white male inmate was placed in the same cell with Buckley. The white male was a suspected Aryan gang member. Sheriff Salazar said there was nothing to indicate the two would not be able to get along.

In 2021 Mark Anthony Wong was arrested after having shot a man. While in the jail, he strangled another inmate claiming the man threatened him and that it was self-defense. The unconscious man was taken to the hospital where he died. Twenty minutes after the victim had been removed from the cell, Wong attacked another inmate, biting his nose. He refused to release the man forcing deputies to use a taser on him.

Media Interviews Sheriff

As everyone should know by now, Sheriff Salazar loves to be in front of the cameras. Instead of a press release, he gave an interview that went over 40 minutes long. We got the following information. All three inmates involved were gang members. They were in a living unit that housed members from that particular gang. It was considered a high-risk, dangerous unit. Two of the inmates had disabled the cell door allowing them to leave their cell.

The person working the door controls has a temporary jailer’s license. That means he has not even been through the detention class yet. He was a cadet. The sheriff said he was “in training.” There was only one deputy outside of the control room. After the Texas Rangers released the scene, deputies conducted a shake down. They found several pointed weapons hidden throughout the day room.

More Civil Lawsuits Coming

We just published an article that brought up the excessive amount of lawsuits under Sheriff Javier Salazar. He is a goldmine for civil attorneys. They know it’s not about inmates killing another inmate. The civil lawsuit the family is likely to file will be on the failures under the Salazar administration.

The lawsuits won’t be on what actually happened to the inmate. It will be on the negligence that allowed it to happen. With each case civil attorneys have everything that happened before as further evidence of negligence. From putting violent aggressive men in with vulnerable inmates to inmates literally breaking out of jail and going on the run. Yes, that happened under Salazar too. It all shows a failure to safely run the facility.

Civil Attorneys Will Point to Failures by the Sheriff

Most people will wonder how the sheriff can be blamed for this. It’s the responsibility of the jail to do their best to protect inmates. Below is just a tiny sample of what civil attorneys will see in this murder.

Why was a trainee, who hadn’t even been through the detention course yet, put in such a high risk unit? And why wasn’t there a trainer with the trainee? It appears the trainee did well, but what if he hadn’t? What if he had panicked? Why would they put a detention officer in a position where he has to depend on an untrained employee? And why was there only one unit officer in such a dangerous living unit?

The Sheriff said that there are YouTube videos on how to defeat a jail cell door. He goes on to say there are steps they can take to harden the security. If he knows that information is out there, and he has ways to try to keep it from happening, why did he wait for someone to be murdered before acting?

Again, it was a high risk unit that housed active gang members. Why did they find weapons stashed all over the dayroom? Aren’t they doing surprise shakedowns like every other sheriff has done?

The sheriff said he could ask for additional locks to be added, but it would probably cost millions. He said he didn’t think it was in the budget. But that’s just a number he pulled out of the air. Salazar has never looked into the acquisition of additional locks, but he has looked into buying a boat for the Sheriff’s Office. That was important enough to the sheriff for him to research. I guess the safety of the deputies and inmates didn’t matter as much to him.

Two Deaths and an Attempted Suicide

Sunday was a busy day at the Bexar County Jail. There were actually two in-custody deaths. The other death was an inmate who died from COVID. But there was also an attempted suicide. An inmate tried to hang himself. I can’t find out much on that because the murder is overshadowing everything. At least KSAT mentioned the second in-custody death. He wasn’t totally forgotten.

Texas Rangers Take Over In-Custody Death Investigation

It’s standard now for the Texas Rangers to conduct the investigation of an in-custody death, per the Sandra Bland Act. I’m curious to see what they have to say. If they look at any failures by the jail, then the jail is in trouble. They couldn’t legitimately pass a jail standards inspection. That part is not really there fault. All jails are having problems. Staffing was always short but has become much worse with the pandemic still running through everyone. It doesn’t change the fact that they are not maintaining the proper coverage.

It’s more than likely why there was only one officer in the living unit and why a trainee was without a trainer in the control room. I expect the Texas Rangers to turn a blind eye to that, but the civil attorneys won’t.

4 thoughts on “Third Inmate Murdered at the Bexar County Jail, Sheriff Failing Miserably

  1. W

    At what point does the DSABC step in and do something? How about a vote of no confidence like they’ve done in the past?

    It seems the union has done more against other Sheriff’s in the past for far less.

    I guess the $200k they gave to Salazar and them hoping he was going to be our “savior” was all for nothing.

    • admin

      W – Your comment reads as if you are an employee. In case you are, we altered your name to try to protect you from any retaliation.

    • admin

      H – We do not have that kind of information. You need to speak to an attorney.

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