Andrew McDermott, a deputy with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas, was already on unpaid leave for his aggressive style of policing when he pulled a knife on his estranged wife.
He wanted to see her phone because he had become aware of text messages she had been receiving but she placed the phone in her pocket.
That was when McDermott used the knife to cut through her jeans in an attempt to remove the phone, cutting her arm in the process.
The woman called the sheriff’s office and McDermott jumped in his car and drove off. Deputies tracked him down and pulled him over, finding two knives and a gun in his car.
He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the second time he has been charged win a domestic violence case since 2016, but the first case was dismissed.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said he suspended McDermott without pay last year after several incidents of him using excessive force against inmates in 2016 came to his attention.
Now the sheriff says he wants to fire him.
“My intention is to separate this person from the agency as soon as I can,” Salazar told reporters.
McDermott, 26, was also ordered to stay away from his wife for 90 days. The two, who have two children together, are getting separated, Salazar said.
