Javier Salazar has bounced between scandals since he took over the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in 2017. During his first year, the department drew national attention after deputies gunned down a woman wielding a metal pipe they’d mistaken for a gun, killing a 6-year-old bystander in the process.
The ensuing years have been similarly rocky for Salazar. In 2018, police arrested 23 of the sheriff’s deputies and jailers, more than twice the number arrested the previous year, and charged many with violent crimes. Inmates at the county lockup, which was recently flagged for violating state standards, continue to allege serious misconduct. A lawsuit filed in March accuses guards of organizing a fight club among inmates and betting on the matches. The same month, Salazar announced the unrelated firings of seven employees, most of them for criminal misconduct.
