A San Antonio police officer was fired after bodycam footage showed him firing multiple shots at a teenager who had been sitting in his car eating a hamburger.
San Antonio Police Department rookie James Brennand was fired following an internal review of the shooting that happened last week when the officer encountered 17-year-old Erik Cantu in a McDonald's parking lot, according to the department.
After bodycam footage from the incident was released, several discrepancies were discovered in his report.
WARNING: The footage is graphic
The footage shows Brennand approaching Cantu's vehicle at 10:45 p.m. on Sunday. According to the department, Brennand was at the restaurant for an unrelated disturbance call.
However, in the video, the officer is seen "abruptly" opening the driver's door before telling the teen to get out of the car. Cantu, who was eating a hamburger with a teenage girl in the passenger seat, is then seen putting his hands on the steering wheel saying, "Why?"
According to Capt. Alyssa Campos, Brennand had been in pursuit of the car the previous night, but it escaped, and he was approaching the vehicle about that incident, not for the incident he was called to the restaurant.
"As the officer attempted to gather information from witnesses, he noticed a vehicle that had evaded him the day before as the officer attempted a stop because the registered license plate did not match the actual vehicle," Campos, the department's training commander, said in a statement with the bodycam footage.
However, the situation turned deadly when the car began rolling backward after the officer struggled with Cantu, resulting in the open door hitting Brennand, Campos said.
At this point, Officer Brennand removed his weapon and fired five shots in the direction of the teen and more as the car drove away. Police located the vehicle a block away from the scene, and Cantu was found injured, but the passenger was not.
Police shared that the car was indeed stolen; however, the initial report on the incident was not in line with the footage from Brennand's body camera.
The original report from Brennand was that he was hit by a vehicle and fired his weapon at the teen in self-defense. However, the bodycam footage never shows the car driving at the officer, only the door hitting him as it slowly rolled backward.
Cantu was initially charged with evading detention with a vehicle and assaulting an officer, but those charges have since been dropped.
After the shooting, he was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, and his attorney Brian Powers shared with NBC News that he is "fighting for his life."
"The former Officer's actions are indefensible and do not align with our training, tactics, and procedures," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said. "As such, I terminated him. I will withhold further comment as this incident is still under investigation."
Brennand has not been charged as of this moment, but an internal investigation into the incident is still underway.
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