{"id":250780,"date":"2026-04-15T11:20:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/250780\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T11:20:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:20:33","slug":"sapd-looking-to-expand-investigation-into-local-minister-accused-of-sexual-assault-of-a-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/250780\/","title":{"rendered":"SAPD looking to expand investigation into local minister accused of sexual assault of a child"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The San Antonio Police Department is looking to expand its investigation into a minister<\/a> charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 years old.<\/p>\n

Ryan Pe\u00f1a was arrested earlier this month and is now out on bond. According to his website, Ryan Pe\u00f1a Ministries<\/a>, he is part of the senior leadership at the Church of Acts on the far West Side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are urging people that if you are a victim or potentially know a victim of Mr. Pe\u00f1a\u2019s acts, we\u2019re asking you to come forward to, of course, continue that investigation,\u201d officer Emily Garvin said.<\/p>\n

Garvin said the department wants to make sure the investigation provides a complete picture of what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour justice is important us, and no matter what the crime, especially something as heinous, we want to make sure that we are investigating properly, and the person gets what they deserve, in a sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrest warrant for Pe\u00f1a alleges there were at least two victims who are now adults.<\/p>\n

He is accused of grooming one of those victims when she was between 6 and 8 years old, with the alleged assault continuing until she was 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a crime was committed, the time frame does not matter. Investigators are going to treat (crimes) that happened years ago as if they happened now,\u201d Garvin said. \u201cIt is important and it\u2019s crucial that we bring justice to people that have endured a crime such as this.\u201d<\/p>\n

A detail in the warrant has some parents of young children upset.<\/p>\n

The church property appears to be the same property where Pe\u00f1a reportedly lives, which happens to be located near the Royal Point Academy, a private elementary school for pre-K through fifth grade students.<\/p>\n

Parents of children who attend the academy tell KSAT they have taken matters into their own hands.<\/p>\n

They said they are keeping watch to make sure Pe\u00f1a is does not come onto the school campus.<\/p>\n

An email sent to KSAT reads, in part, that they have, \u201cestablished a schedule to ensure that a parent is always on school campus for the foreseeable future until the end of the school year or this situation is remedied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another parent email stated, \u201cWe are trying to find the best solution to help my children finish the school year and be away from this disgusting situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garvin acknowledged that coming forward is not easy for victims but assured them their information is key.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially something as difficult as a sexual assault, but we urge these people to come forth because it assists us in the investigation to prosecute him to the full extent,\u201d Garvin said.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The San Antonio Police Department is looking to expand its investigation into a minister charged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[294,82,84,83,632,51314,2098],"class_list":{"0":"post-250780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","11":"tag-san-antonio-news","12":"tag-sapd","13":"tag-we-follow-through","14":"tag-west-side"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}