Charges dropped against teen shot by police officer while eating in his car outside McDonald’s
District attorney now investigating as officer dismissed
Officials in San Antonio, Texas, have decided to drop charges they intended to file against a teenager who was shot by a police officer outside a McDonald’s.
Erik Cantu, 17, was said to be in a critical condition on Friday following the 2 October shooting at a McDonald’s in San Antonio. The police officer responsible, James Brennand, has since been fired.
Mr Cantu had initially faced charges for evading detention in a vehicle and for assaulting a police officer, but the Bexar County criminal district attorney, Joe Gonzales, announced they had been dropped on Friday.
Mr Gonzales said during a news conference that he was instead considering charges against former officer Mr Brennand.
“The issue is going to be, if we ever get to trial, whether or not this officer felt like his life was in danger,” Mr Gonzales said of the shooting.
According to police, Mr Brennand was a newly trained officer still in probation when he shot Mr Cantu after attempting to gather information from witnesses in a parking lot about an unrelated disturbance.
The officer allegedly noticed Mr Cantu in a vehicle he had seen the day before and which did not have a matching license plate, with bodycam footage showing the teenager eating a burger and a 17-year-old girl sitting in the passenger seat as Mr Brennand instructed the pair to get out of the car.
Mr Cantu began to back up with the car door still open, which San Antonio Police Captain Alyssa Campos said struck the officer, who fired several times, striking the teenager.
Mr Cantu was taken to hospital and is believed to still be in critical condition.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told WOAI that Mr Brennand should not have opened fire and said: “There is nothing I can say in defence of that officer’s actions that night..I think what happened, initially, there was some contact made, but that did not justify the shooting.”
Police have not said if the vehicle driven by Mr Cantu was stolen or was in fact using a different license plate.
The district attorney’s office is now investigating the case.
The Independent has reached out to the San Antonio Police Officers’ Association for comment.