The San Marcos Police Department has identified the man accused of shooting and killing Officer Kenneth Copeland as Stewart Thomas Mettz.
Mettz, 51, owns the home at 177 Valero Dr., which is in the El Camino Real subdivision in southern San Marcos, off of Old Bastrop Road, according to the Hays County Appraisal District. The home listing shows Mettz is a disabled veteran.
An arrest warrant filed on Dec. 4 accused Mettz of injury to an elderly person–family violence. The warrant indicates Mettz assaulted his wife and mother-in-law in two separate incidents over the past few months. According to court documents, Mettz called his mother-in-law after an incident on Nov. 25 and said, “You had better not file charges or you know what will happen.”
On Nov. 26, Mettz wife and mother-in-law came to the San Marcos Police Department to report the alleged assaults. The mother-in-law had been living with the couple for the past year-and-a-half and advised there had been “numerous physical altercations with Stewart being the aggressor.”
The officer who met with the women indicated it appeared they were scared of Mettz. Both women told police they never reported any previous incidents because they were scared of Mettz.
KXAN could find no criminal record for Mettz in Texas, aside from a minor ticket for blocking a handicap access, which was dismissed in 2016. Police said they were serving the arrest warrant on Mettz when the shots rang out.
Mettz appears to have family in Blackfoot, Idaho, and he moved around the country, including Texas and New Mexico, prior to settling in San Marcos.
San Marcos police said Mettz had a gunshot wound when he surrendered after a SWAT standoff. A spokesperson for St. David’s South Austin Medical Center says Mettz is currently in fair condition as of Tuesday morning.
Mettz has not officially been charged in connection with Copeland’s death.
(Story from KXAN.com)
