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Texas officer fired after shooting teenager who was eating in a McDonald’s parking lot

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VIDEO BY AP
WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. A Texas police officer was fired just days after shooting and wounding a teenager who had been sitting in his car eating a hamburger.
SAN ANTONIO POLICE DEPARTMENT VIA AP / OCT. 2
                                In this image taken from police body camera video and released by San Antonio Police Department, Erik Cantu looks toward San Antonio Police officer James Brennand while holding a hamburger in a fast food restaurant parking lot as the officer opens the car door in San Antonio, Texas. Brennand opened fire several times wounding the unarmed teenager as he drove away. Brennand was fired after the shooting, police training commander Alyssa Campos said in a video statement released.
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SAN ANTONIO POLICE DEPARTMENT VIA AP / OCT. 2

In this image taken from police body camera video and released by San Antonio Police Department, Erik Cantu looks toward San Antonio Police officer James Brennand while holding a hamburger in a fast food restaurant parking lot as the officer opens the car door in San Antonio, Texas. Brennand opened fire several times wounding the unarmed teenager as he drove away. Brennand was fired after the shooting, police training commander Alyssa Campos said in a video statement released.

SAN ANTONIO POLICE DEPARTMENT VIA AP / OCT. 2
                                In this image taken from police body camera video and released by San Antonio Police Department, Erik Cantu looks toward San Antonio Police officer James Brennand while holding a hamburger in a fast food restaurant parking lot as the officer opens the car door in San Antonio, Texas. Brennand opened fire several times wounding the unarmed teenager as he drove away. Brennand was fired after the shooting, police training commander Alyssa Campos said in a video statement released.

A rookie San Antonio police officer was fired after he shot a teenager who was eating in a McDonald’s parking lot, leaving the 17-year-old in critical condition, authorities said.

The San Antonio Police Department said that the former officer, James Brennand, was fired because of his actions during the encounter on Oct. 2. Body camera footage showed him abruptly opening the door of a car the teenager was in and opening fire moments later.

The teenager, Erik Cantu, was initially charged with evading detention in a vehicle and assault on a police officer, the department said. But the Bexar County criminal district attorney, Joe Gonzales, said during a news conference Friday that he had dismissed the charges.

Police are investigating the shooting and will forward their results to Gonzales, Capt. Alyssa Campos, the training commander for the San Antonio police, said in a video statement Wednesday.

Gonzales said that he had not determined yet whether to file charges against Brennand, a newly hired officer who was still in a probationary period, and was awaiting “all the evidence.”

“The issue is going to be, if we ever get to trial, whether or not this officer felt like his life was in danger,” Gonzales said.

He later added: “What was disturbing to me is at the moment that the officer fired and then continued to fire, it didn’t appear to me that his life was in danger. But again, we don’t have all the facts. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Brennand could not be reached Saturday and it was unclear whether he had a lawyer.

Brian Powers, a lawyer for Cantu, declined to comment on the investigation but relayed a message from the teenager’s family.

“He is still in critical condition and literally fighting for his life every minute of the day,” Powers said. “His body has endured a tremendous amount of trauma.”

It was not immediately clear precisely how many shots were fired and how many times Cantu was struck.

The encounter began around 10:45 p.m. when police were called to a disturbance call at the McDonald’s in north-central San Antonio, Campos said.

As Brennand spoke with witnesses, he spotted a car that he believed to be stolen and that had fled the day before, Campos said, adding that the vehicle was not the subject of the disturbance call. Officials did not say whether the car had been stolen.

Brennand called for backup but before other officers arrived he “abruptly opened” the driver’s side door and ordered Cantu out, Campos.

“Why?” Cantu asked with a confused look on his face, holding food in his hand and still chewing, according to the footage.

Campos said that, while the vehicle door was open, Cantu put the car in reverse and tried to leave.

“The officer was hit by the open door,” she said. “The officer then stepped back and opened fire on the vehicle as the driver reversed away from him. The driver shifted the vehicle to drive and then turned away from the officer to leave and the officer shot several more times at the fleeing vehicle.”

Campos said that Cantu and a 17-year-old female passenger were found a block away. Details about the passenger were not immediately available.

William McManus, the San Antonio police chief, could not be reached late Saturday, but he told television station WOAI that Brennand should not have opened fire.

“There is nothing I can say in defense of that officer’s actions that night,” McManus said, adding, “I think what happened, initially, there was some contact made, but that did not justify the shooting.”


This article originally appeared in The New York Times.


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