A 43-year-old woman with a history of mental illness was shot and killed by a San Antonio Police Department officer Saturday in her own home.
The woman, Kirsten Kloppe, had called police around 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, to report stalking, and believed her computer was "being interfered with," according SAPD Chief William McManus. Once officers arrived to her Northside home on Bluff Circle, just north of Wurzbach Parkway, they found Kloppe locked inside of her upstairs bedroom.
McManus said two officers and one cadet spoke with Kloppe through the closed door and asked if she was armed. She said she was not. Officers then broke down the door, saw that Kloppe was holding a pistol to her head, and tried to disarm her.
According to McManus, while the officers struggled to grab the gun from her, Kloppe's pistol momentarily pointed toward one of the officer's heads. This prompted an unidentified officer to shoot Kloppe in the abdomen. Kloppe died after being rushed to University Hospital.
On Saturday, McManus said Kloppe had a history of mental illness. According to her close friends, who posted about her death on social media, she was a longtime victim of domestic violence. She leaves behind several children.
This was SAPD's second fatal shooting of a civilian in under 48 hours. On Thursday evening, a police officer shot and killed a man who, after stealing a BMX bike from a Northside Target, had stabbed an officer in the hand.
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