The San Antonio Police Department has arrested former officer James Brennand on two counts of aggravated assault by a public official after a shooting that injured a 17-year-old male on Oct. 2, officials announced Tuesday.
SAPD Chief William McManus said in a press conference Tuesday night that Brennand turned himself in and is in custody on the first-degree felony charges.
McManus said that if Erik Cantu, who is hospitalized in critical and stable condition, does not make it, Brennand’s charges would change. County records show Brennand was released from jail Wednesday morning with a bond set at $200,000. A hearing is slated for Nov. 23.
Shortly before news of Brennand’s arrest was released, police reform activists and friends of Cantu stood outside police headquarters and demanded justice for the teenager.
“I think that it’s no coincidence that they filed the charges as community members started to demand that charges be filed,” said Chris Banks, an organizer with the local chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Banks said the charges should be attempted murder because Brennand fired his weapon 10 times at two unarmed teenagers.
Ananda Tomas of Act 4 SA, a local police reform group, agreed. While she’s pleased Brennand was arrested quickly, she also doesn’t think aggravated assault is enough.
Bron Savage, 22, a friend of Cantu’s, said he was shocked by news of the arrest.
“I do think he [Brennand] still should get attempted murder charges, because what he did was wrong,” Savage said.
Both aggravated assault and attempted murder are felony one charges, which can carry 5-99 years in prison. The district attorney also has the authority to adjust charges.
“This case was worked up by the detectives in homicide,” McManus said. “They look at every fact, they checked every box … the case that they came up with was aggravated assault by a public official.”
Brennand’s body camera footage, released as the department announced his firing, showed that he violated several policies and procedures on Oct. 2 when he approached the car and fired 10 times, McManus said.
While Brennand was responding to a disturbance at a McDonald’s on the North Side at approximately 10:45 p.m., he noticed a car in the parking lot that allegedly matched the description of a vehicle he had tried to pull over on Saturday.
“This vehicle was not the subject of the disturbance call,” said Alyssa Campos, the SAPD’s training commander, in a narrated version of Brennand’s body camera footage released Wednesday. “The officer thought the car may be a stolen vehicle and called for cover.”
Before other officers arrived, Brennand approached the car and opened the driver’s side door without warning — seeming to surprise the male driver who was still eating his meal. The teenager then put the car in reverse and attempted to leave.
But the car door was still open, and it struck Brennand, who stepped back from the vehicle and fired five shots at the driver. As the car exited the parking lot, Brennand fired five more times.
The driver and his passenger were eventually apprehended about a block away. The 17-year-old female passenger was uninjured, but the driver was taken to an area hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
“It started going bad from the very start of this encounter,” McManus said last week, questioning why the officer approached the vehicle in the first place. “You don’t know that for certain it’s the same vehicle, you don’t know for certain it’s the same driver.”
Tactically, the officer should not have placed himself in front of an open door of a car that was turned on, he said. And once the officer “cleared the door and was no longer in danger of being knocked down or pulled out of the car, he was not in a position where he should have used deadly force.”
The second round of shots was also against policy.
“The driver was going in the opposite direction, away from the officer,” he said. “There’s no way I could look at that, or anyone could look at it, and try to justify what happened.”
After new officers complete training, which includes 15 weeks of field training alongside another officer, they are placed on probation for one year. These probationary officers can be fired without notice or cause by the chief, according to the police union’s employment contract with the city.
That means they are not entitled to the same appeal process that full-fledged officers may employ.
“Swift action was taken by the Chief to terminate the officer, and I am relieved that this decision is final,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in an emailed statement.
Brennand’s actions don’t give McManus cause for concern over the SAPD training processes.
“Our policies are sound and our training is sound,” he said. “And I don’t see anywhere that would require review. … This was an individual failure. Not a training failure, not a policy failure.”
