(Trends Wide) — The family of Melissa Perez, who was fatally shot in her home by San Antonio Police in June, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and the three officers involved, who were charged with manslaughter.

The lawsuit claims that the “formal and informal policies of the San Antonio Police Department were instrumental in the death” of the 46-year-old woman. He also claims that police department policies regarding mental health calls and the mental health unit caused Perez’s death.

According to the complaint, “the department’s failure to consistently discipline its officers created a culture of tolerance toward the improper and unconstitutional use of excessive force.”

The police encounter with Perez came June 23 after officers responded to a call about a woman cutting the wires to a fire alarm system at her apartment complex, the San Francisco police chief said. Antonio, William McManus, at a press conference shortly after the shooting.

“It appeared that Ms. Perez was suffering from a mental health crisis,” the chief said.

After initially speaking with agents on the outside, Perez went back into his apartment and locked the door, according to McManus. Later, an officer tried to open a window and Perez threw a crystal chandelier at him, according to McManus.

At one point, Perez brandished a hammer at an officer, but it struck the window, breaking it, according to police. One of the officers opened fire, according to McManus, but she was not hit by Perez and on video from the officers’ body cameras she could still be heard speaking.

He then “advanced back to the window while still holding the hammer, and all three officers opened fire,” McManus said. He died at the scene.

Although he was allegedly approaching the officers with a hammer when they opened fire, the arrest warrant says Perez “did not pose an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death when he was shot because the defendants had a wall, a window blocked by a television and a closed door between them.

Agent Eleazar Alejandro, 28 years old; Sergeant Alfred Flores, 45, and Officer Nathaniel Villalobos, 27, were charged with murder less than 24 hours after the encounter.

All three are suspended from the force without pay while the investigation continues. They were released on $100,000 bail, according to Bexar County jail records, with neither commenting to Trends Wide at the time. All three were suspended without pay, according to a city spokesperson.

Pérez’s family is now asking for compensation “in an amount proportional to the damage caused” and that “the improvements that need to be made be addressed, and then the hard work is done to ensure that Melissa Pérez is the last person in San Antonio killed unfairly by the police”.

The plaintiffs “have serious and legitimate grievances against the policy makers of the City of San Antonio…for the policies, procedures, training and lack of enforcement that led directly to this shooting. The plaintiffs firmly believe that the city itself is also responsible of the death of Ms. Perez,” the lawsuit says.

“City policy makers acted with deliberate indifference to the known or obvious constitutional violations that would result from such policies,” the document read.

San Antonio city officials said they “will seek a speedy resolution through the court system,” according to a statement.

“The San Antonio Police Department has well-established training, policies and procedures that preserve the constitutional rights of our residents. The officers involved in this incident failed to follow proper training, policies and procedures,” the attorney for the police said. city ​​of San Antonio, Andy Segovia.

Trends Wide has contacted the San Antonio Police Department and the three officers for comment.

In a statement, the head of the San Antonio police union expressed condolences to Perez’s family. San Antonio Police Officers Association President Danny Diaz said McManus “followed all necessary protocols” after the shooting.

Díaz “cannot speak further on the matter until the investigation has concluded and the judicial process is underway,” the statement said.

Perez’s children, whose ages range from 9 to 24, were struck by “incomprehensible grief” after their mother’s death, family lawyer Dan Packard told Trends Wide last week.

“There are no words to explain to a 9-year-old boy how three police officers thought it was okay to shoot this woman in unison while she was in her own home behind a wall,” Packard said.

Trends Wide’s Andy Rose contributed to this report.