TX - Chief Michael Pimentel, 64, slain during traffic stop, Elmendorf, 23 Aug 2014

Pamerleau told the Express-News that a 24-year-old man was taken into custody and will face a charge of capital murder of a police officer.

The suspect was identified as Joshua Manuel Lopez, according to the Sheriff's Office.

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A shooting like this is the kind of thing unlikely to happen in Elmendorf, a small South Texas town 17 miles southeast of San Antonio. Its population does not even reach 1,500, making it smaller than many high schools' student bodies.

That smallness extended to the scene of the shooting. Lopez grew up and lived about a block from where Pimentel was killed, and the event and its aftermath was witnessed by people who had known him his whole life.

Beyond expressing shock about the shooting, those neighbors Sunday offered a series of reactions that ranged from astonishment to an almost unnerving expectation about Lopez's purported involvement.

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Family, friends and colleagues will pay their final respects Tuesday to Elmendorf Police Chief Michael Pimentel who was killed in the line of duty...

Tuesday's procession is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. at Porter Loring and will go to the Stone Oak area with funeral services expected to begin at 11 a.m. at Cornerstone Church on Stone Oak Parkway...

According to his obituary, Pimentel was born on May 15, 1950 and graduated from Holy Cross High School in San Antonio. He attended Texas A&M - Corpus Christi, served in the United States Army and went to Vietnam. Pimentel then served as a police officer for several area cities, ending in Elmendorf.

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The man accused of shooting and killing Elmendorf’s police chief will not face the possibility of execution if convicted, the Bexar County district attorney’s office announced this week.
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Joshua Manuel Lopez, 25, was arrested in August on charges that he killed Michael Pimentel, 64.
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“Fiscally, it’s irresponsible to seek death for political gain, and we’re not going to have that in this office,” District Attorney Nicholas “Nico” LaHood said. “The temptation politically is to seek death, but you have to truly make a legal, objective analysis of the situation.”
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He said the team considered Lopez’s lack of criminal history and his mental health.
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Chief Pimentel had conducted an investigation days before his death that pointed to Lopez as the alleged perpetrator in a graffiti case.
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Neighbors described Lopez as a quiet loner, known to roam the neighborhood wearing a black trench coat even in 100-degree heat.

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wfgodot said:

DA declines to seek death against police chief’s accused killer (San Antonio Express-News)


the rest at the link

Sounds like a sound decision; whattaya think?

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City officials in Elmendorf tell Eyewitness News they are "disheartened" with the decision not to seek the death penalty for Joshua Manuel Lopez.

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