Officer James Brennand, who fired his gun at a teenager Sunday, was fired by the San Antonio Police Department on Wednesday. According to KSAT 12, Brennand is not entitled to an appeal of his termination because he was still deemed a probationary officer, on the job for just seven months.
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The newly released bodycam footage shows the officer opening the driver’s side door and ordering the teen out of the car. The car then backed up, and within seconds the officer fired off multiple shots into the car at point-blank range.
.@BexarCoSheriff san antonio police department is under-trained and out of control! pic.twitter.com/OdCp97og2W
— INFOWARSROB (@IWROB76) October 6, 2022
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.
One of Brennand’s previous supervisors were interviewed and said he just spoke to the officer and said, “Good laughs, just normal human being stuff. Nothing really serious. I never got a bad vibe from (Cantu),” Montalvo said. “He was always a really good guy to me, and he always respected me. Every time I told him to do something, he always did it, and he worked hard.”
He wasn’t aware of the body cam footage that was a released to the public so during the interview he was shown the footage while the cameras was rolling and this is how he responded to the footage. “That’s hard to watch. That’s scary. I’m speechless, honestly,” Montalvo said after watching the video. “(Cantu) looks scared. He looks terrified. He doesn’t know what’s going on. He was just in his car eating. That right there, that personally didn’t look right to me.”
The San Antonio Police Department on Wednesday fired a police officer who shot a teenager outside a McDonald’s restaurant less than a week ago. https://t.co/uiyrUMANjN
— KSAT 12 (@ksatnews) October 6, 2022
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Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales released a statement on the shooting saying, “The Bexar County District Attorney’s Civil Rights Division will fully review the evidence submitted by the San Antonio Police Department into the shooting of Erik Cantu by a now former police officer once the SAPD investigation is complete. The DA’s Office will also review all evidence related to the charges against Erik Cantu once we have received it. The DA’s Office can make no comment on whether charges may be pursued against either individual until all evidence has been reviewed.”