Overview
- Late Tuesday night an SAPD officer with seven years of service shot an 18-year-old passenger after a physical struggle during a West Side traffic stop when officers say the teen reached for a gun; the teen was found in an abandoned lot with a nearby gun and was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
- The driver of the vehicle left the scene and remained at large while the shooting officer was placed on administrative duty and separate internal probes by SAPD’s Shooting Team and Internal Affairs began.
- On Sept. 2 the department released body-worn camera footage from an unrelated Aug. 1 West Side encounter showing five officers repeatedly ordering 69-year-old Raul Garza not to reach for a weapon before they fired and killed him.
- SAPD named the five officers who fired in the Aug. 1 case and confirmed concurrent reviews by the department and a standard review by the Bexar County district attorney’s office for that shooting.
- Local reports show inconsistent year-to-date counts of officer-involved shootings, a discrepancy that has intensified public questions about transparency and could prompt closer scrutiny of SAPD practices and reporting.