A 17-year-old boy shot by a San Antonio police officer whereas consuming a McDonald’s hamburger in his automotive had 4 bullets faraway from his physique and suffered a pneumonia within the hospital, his household mentioned Tuesday of their first public remarks because the taking pictures earlier this month.
“It’s extremely contact and go. It’s extremely arduous,” Erik Cantu Sr. mentioned, who added his son bought had a tracheotomy and is struggling to breathe with out help from machines. “He’s getting barely higher, his wounds are therapeutic, however the wounds that he’s endured, they’re nice, there’s quite a lot of them.”
Erik Cantu, 17, was shot by former San Antonio police officer James Brennand on Oct. 2 in a McDonald’s car parking zone. Brennand was fired later that week and charged with two counts of aggravated assault by a public official. Police mentioned Brennand violated his coaching and police procedures after approaching the automotive.
The teenager had 4 bullets faraway from his physique within the hospital and one stays lodged close to his coronary heart for now, his mom mentioned. The teenager’s mom, Victoria Casarez, mentioned Cantu was wounded in his abdomen, diaphragm, lungs, liver and arm. His father mentioned he needed to be lower from the center of his chest to his abdomen on the hospital.
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“He is simply mutilated and it hurts us to see our son this manner,” Victoria Casarez mentioned.
Talking at Tuesday’s press convention, civil rights legal professional Ben Crump, who’s representing the household, mentioned Bexar County District Lawyer Joe Gonzales met with Cantu’s dad and mom and informed them their son was shot after he was “profiled.”
Crump mentioned the district legal professional informed the household the officer was on the lookout for a Hispanic teen with a bowl haircut and profiled Cantu. The district legal professional’s workplace on Tuesday mentioned it doesn’t publicly touch upon the info of pending circumstances.
Crump mentioned the teenager “is constant to combat for his life on life assist.”
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Brennand had been responding to the McDonald’s restaurant on an unrelated name when he noticed Cantu contained in the automotive. Authorities mentioned Brennand later defined he believed the automobile was stolen and had fled from him the day earlier than. Police have mentioned that though registration plates didn’t match the automobile Cantu was working, the automotive itself was not stolen.
Casarez mentioned she needs to see further expenses in opposition to him, together with tried homicide.
“There’s extra to it that’s so disheartening to observe, to expertise, and there must be one thing achieved about that,” she mentioned, telling reporters there was extra physique digital camera footage that has not been launched to the general public.
A number of relations spoke at Tuesday’s press convention, together with in Spanish. A frontrunner from LULAC, the League of United Latino American Residents, additionally spoke and demanded justice from the San Antonio police division.
Contributing: Related Press