FATAL SHOOTING SCENE - Roy Almanza, Jr., points out the spot where his father, Roy Almanza, Sr., 41, was shot to death by Sheriff’s deputies Saturday afternoon in front of the family home. The investigation of the fatal shooting has been given to the Texas Rangers. A mentally disturbed man was shot to death by sheriff's deputies at 2:30 p.m. Saturday outside his home in the 300 block of North Loop, just outside the city limits.

Roy Almanza, Jr., 41, had gone on a rampage inside his home, smashing a tv set and other home furnishings when family members called the sheriff's dept., according to Sheriff Larry Spence.

When deputies responded to the call they saw Almanza swinging the bat and threate-ning people, Spence said. The deputies saw what looked like a pistol in the waistband of Almanza' s trousers.

He moved toward deputies with the bat in one hand and pulled the weapon from his pants, which turned out to be “something like a BB gun,” Spence said.

Deputies backed away from the man but he continued to advance on them, threatening them and showing what they thought was a pistol. Both deputies fired on Almanza and the sheriff believes one deputy fired three shots and the other fired two shots.

Spence said both deputies have been placed on adminis-trative leave and an investi-gation of the shooting has been placed in the hands of the Texas Rangers.

North Loop is on the outskirts of Raymondville and connects North 5th Street and Monterrey Street.

The sheriff said that Almanza was bi-polar and according to members of his family, he stopped taking his mood regulating prescription medic-ine about a month ago.

"They said he told them his medication wasn't doing any good. They said this was probably the worst (episode of rage) he ever had," Spence said.

The shooting follows a shooting a week earlier in which no one was injured. In that incident a police officer fired at a 16-year-old boy who fled from a police stop in a Lincoln Navigator. City police are investigating that case and the officer, Daniel Duran, is on administrative leave.

Sheriff Spence said that the actions of police officers in such situations is often second guessed by the general public.

"They may say, why didn't they use pepper spray, or mace or why didn't they Taze him," the sheriff said.

"Well, to do that you have to get into close contact with the individual, maybe arms length. That's pretty hard to do when he is swinging a baseball bat, or if you believe he is armed with a weapon. Then,if you Taze someone, how do you know it won't cause a heart attack?"

Then again, law enforcement officers are often confronted with a situation involving an armed person who is a threat to himself and to others and they have only split seconds to decide whether to use deadly force.

In addition to the shooting in Raymondville this weekend, police in Austin and Dallas shot and killed armed individuals in similar confrontations. Maybe it is something about the holidays.

Meanwhile funeral services for Almanza are pending. A prayer service will be held Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Duddlesten Funeral Home Chapel. A chapel service will take place Thurs., Jan. 7 at 1 p.m. followed by burial at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Raymondville.

Almanza is survived by his wife, Feliciana, two sons, Roy Jr., and Javier, both of Raym-ondville, a daughter, Jackie, and two step-sons, Rene and John Cisneros, his parents, Jose L. and Frances Almanza, four sisters, one brother and three grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his twin brother, Robert Almanza, who died in a motorcycle accident a few years ago.