SAN ANTONIO – A commander with the San Antonio Park Police Department has been placed on administrative leave after he was accused last month of crashing into a vehicle on the Northeast Side and then fleeing the scene.
Lt. Timothy Packard is district commander for park police and a 39-year veteran of the department, city records show.
He is accused of swerving into a vehicle on Aug. 18 in the 4500 block of Walzem Road and then leaving the scene without exchanging information with the other driver.
Packard was driving a city vehicle at the time of the crash, a San Antonio Police Department incident report shows.
The other vehicle, which contained four people, pulled over after the collision.
One of the occupants complained of minor pain in her upper body, according to an SAPD incident report.
A relative of one of the occupants told KSAT it appeared Packard was in a rush.
SAPD investigators eventually went to Packard’s home to photograph the city vehicle.
Packard told investigators that he did not know he had struck another vehicle.
The case will be filed at large as failure to stop and give information with damage over $200, a class B misdemeanor, the incident report states.
As of Monday, more than a month after the crash, Packard had not been criminally charged.
City officials confirm Packard has been placed on administrative duty, but have not said whether the wreck occurred while he was on duty.
An SAPD spokesman told KSAT via email, “We are aware of this incident, and it is being investigated.”
The crash was the third driving incident within three weeks involving an SAPD officer that triggered a criminal investigation.
SAPD Officer Paul Fencik was taken into custody at the south patrol substation on July 31, after investigators said he drove his patrol vehicle out of a parking lot on duty while under the influence of alcohol.
During a search of Fencik’s patrol vehicle, police said they found an open beer container in the center console and a cooler filled with unopened beer.
Fencik was charged with driving while intoxicated (DWI) with a blood alcohol content over .15, a Class A misdemeanor.
Body-worn camera footage released by SAPD earlier this month shows Fencik taking part in a field sobriety test at work, while in uniform.
A pretrial hearing is scheduled in Fencik’s DWI case on Nov. 3, court records show.
Separately, SAPD Officer David McCall was charged with DWI on Aug. 14, more than a week after witnesses said he crashed through the front yard of a home in west Bexar County.
McCall, a 17-year veteran of SAPD, “appeared conscious but was unresponsive to verbal attempts to communicate and was struggling to breathe,” a Bexar County Sheriff’s Office incident report states.
Investigators noted a six-pack of beer and an unopened bottle of wine inside McCall’s vehicle, as paramedics treated him at the scene Aug. 6.
A toxicology report later showed McCall’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.238, according to an arrest warrant. The .238 level is nearly three times more than the legal limit to drive in Texas (.08).
McCall faces a class A misdemeanor charge of DWI with blood alcohol content over .15.
A pretrial hearing is scheduled in McCall’s case on Oct. 1, court records show.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.