SAN ANTONIO – Body-worn camera footage played publicly for the first time Wednesday showed a San Antonio police officer firing twice at a then-teenager who was running away from him in a West Side neighborhood.
Footage of the March 2020 incident in the 9500 block of Five Forks was shown during Day 1 of arbitration for Oscar Cruz Jr., who was handed an indefinite suspension months after he fired his weapon toward the teen.
Cruz was charged with deadly conduct-firearm in early 2022, but court proceedings ended in a mistrial in January 2024. His case was dismissed by the judge later that summer.
After a jury had been seated for Cruz’s trial last year, the then-chief of the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Division revealed that he had just learned the minors Cruz was accused of firing his gun at had pending criminal cases in juvenile court.
One of Cruz’s criminal attorneys told KSAT last year they learned one of the teens admitted to assaulting Cruz while previously being interviewed by investigators.
The attorney said that information was not revealed to Cruz’s defense team until after a jury had already been seated for trial.
The criminal case against Cruz was later dismissed by the judge that summer.
‘Stop running or I will f---ing shoot you!’
Cruz was dispatched to the neighborhood to investigate two teens accused of trying to open vehicle doors.
Cruz briefly interacted with one of the teens, who ran away after Cruz attempted to put him in handcuffs, footage showed.
“Stop running or I will f---ing shoot you!” said Cruz as he pointed his weapon at the fleeing teen, footage showed.
After firing two shots, neither of which struck the teen, Cruz said the teen had thrown a rock at him, according to the footage.
Cruz then told someone at the scene that the teen had thrown “something” at him, the footage showed.
Neither teen was injured in the shooting, according to testimony given Wednesday.
Cruz, in a statement describing the incident, said an object thrown by the teen struck him in the face and caused pain to his forehead.
Elizabeth Guerrero-Southard, the San Antonio city attorney tasked with presenting SAPD’s case to keep Cruz on indefinite suspension, said Cruz attempted to use lethal force against two teens who were not a threat to him.
“You don’t shoot fleeing suspects,” Guerrero-Southard said during her opening statement.
Ricardo Garcia Tagle, Cruz’s attorney, said his client did not know the ages of the two people pulling on door handles and that Cruz fired his weapon because he believed his life was in danger and he was being ambushed after being hit in the face by an object thrown by one of the teens.
SAPD Chief William McManus testified Wednesday morning that Cruz’s actions that night violated department policy.
Under cross-examination from Cruz’s attorney, McManus said the officer’s statement written after the shooting was “insulting.”
“At the time he fired his weapon, there was absolutely no danger to him,” said McManus.
McManus pointed out that Cruz was struck by a shoe, not a rock, as Cruz first stated at the scene.
“A rock sounds better,” added McManus.
Attorney for Cruz objects to presence of camera, calls it ‘intimidating’
Arbitrator Diego J. Pena said the downtown hearing could last through Friday.
Arbitrator decisions, which in this case are deciding whether to uphold Cruz’s termination or to shorten his punishment, are typically made a few months after the hearing concludes.
Garcia Tagle objected to the presence of cameras on Wednesday and said he had an issue with the media recording footage of him and his client during a previous arbitration hearing, calling the presence of the cameras “intimidating.”
Pena eventually permitted only one camera, which belongs to KSAT, to record the proceedings.
Pena said he was trying to balance the rights of the public to attend the hearing with concerns raised by both Garcia Tagle and Guerrero-Southard that witnesses could be distracted or the attorneys' side conversations would be recorded.
Following a break in proceedings, Pena then requested that two members of the public stop recording video of the proceedings.
Both men gathered their belongings and quickly left.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
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