On March 9, 2020 law enforcement responded to the home of Lisa and Jesus Garcia on Blue Horizon. Neighbors called the police saying they saw Jesus drag Lisa inside the home and they heard shouting.
Within 30 minutes of police arriving, Jesus Garcia would be dead. The family said it didn’t have to happen, that police didn’t need to shoot. A Bexar County grand jury agreed, indicting deputy sheriff Brandin Moran with manslaughter. The county settled a civil suit with the family for 1.5 million dollars. But Moran was not prosecuted and is still a police deputy today.
Texas Public Radio fought for months to secure copies of body camera footage from the case but the county would not release it.
Accountability Reporter Paul Flahive gained access to the footage and sat down with Garcia’s family in an exclusive interview to discuss what happened that day and what happens now.
This interview describes a shooting and death in graphic terms.
This is the second Christmas the Garcia family will have without husband, father and grandfather Jesus Benito Garcia. His daughter Jessica Garcia — who’s sitting in Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid offices with her mother Lisa — says it’s a hard time of year.
“Last year, it was very hard, especially for the grandkids. They’re always asking for their grandpa and stuff like that. You know, I have my eight-year-old asking, Why did her grandpa have to get killed and she has a lot of hatred. I try to tell them that hatred is not the way because all cops aren’t bad but she doesn’t understand…They asked when is he coming back? And why did that have to happen to him?” asked Jessica.
Everything that happened to Jesus Garcia happened very quickly.
Body camera footage shows a man in crisis — a screwdriver to his neck — shouting at his wife Lisa inside their home. According to a police report Elmendorf police sergeant David Reyes’ had been told by a neighbor that Garcia was beating his wife — which she refutes.
The video shows Lisa clearly wants to leave and Garcia is obstructing her path. He was threatening to kill himself if Lisa left him. A police report said she wanted to leave the man.
She moves to a back room and he follows.
Reyes is shouting for him to stop moving — to drop the screwdriver — at one point saying “You’re gonna get shot”
The shouts of Jesus and Lisa and Reyes fill the small mobile home.
Lisa tries to pass Jesus and run but he holds on to her and— now in the front room — they both fall.
Now kneeling beside Lisa, Garcia yells that the screwdriver is against his own neck and he isn’t a threat to his wife.
“I’m not doing anything…I’m not doing anything” Jesus yells.
Reyes has been in the home for about 4 minutes. And appears to try and pull his taser. He would later say he was unable to due to the evolving situation.
Bexar County Deputy Sheriff Brandin Moran enters with his gun drawn.
Moran — in the house for around 10 seconds — yells to Reyes.
“Sarge Sarge, I’m taking it.”
He fires seven shots in Jesus and Lisa’s direction striking Jesus five times. The man’s body collapses onto his screaming wife.
“I still have nightmares now hearing the gunshots and I felt like my kids were gonna be left without both a mother and a father,” said Lisa Garcia.
Lisa Garcia disputes Moran’s official account which was that he believe he saw a gun and took action to save her.
When I saw that trigger, when I just heard it, I felt more a threat there to me.” she said “How could he be saying that he was doing it to protect me? When I just heard the shots. I was like, that’s it for me. You know, I’m right in front of my husband.”
Reyes and Moran drag Jesus away through a puddle of his own blood. Then pull Lisa to the front door. Moran asks Reyes to check Lisa for bullet wounds, unsure if he hit her. She has Jesus’s blood down her arm and staining her shorts. The two men poke and prod at the inconsolable woman who is asking to help her husband.
“I wanted to attend to my husband knowing what was going on with him — [to see] if he was okay,” Lisa said.
‘Can y’all help him?’ I told them, can you help my husband call for help. It was just looking at me. And I pointed my finger at [Moran] very upset, you know, very upset, you’re gonna pay for this because you ain’t doing nothing. You see my husband laying there and you’re not getting him any help.”
Jia Chen
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Body camera footage shows that no one provides aid to Jesus Garcia for 12 minutes as he slowly bleeds to death. When Reyes asks if Moran checked on whether Garcia is alive — Moran, standing more than 8 feet away, simply aims his flashlight at Garcia’s body and says he’s gone. He then paces the room.
That officer Moran did nothing to help my father,” said Nicole Herrera, another of Jesus’ daughters.
“My dad just lay there helpless. You know trying to gasp for air, seeing if any officers if anyone would go to my dad and save him.”
The women say they don’t want to make excuses for their father. They aren’t saying domestic violence isn’t serious, but they don’t agree that he was assaulting their mother. Police documents say he would have faced an aggravated assault arrest.
Even if it were, the women said police should know how to de-escalate mental health situations.
“They need to train their officers, deputies better. I understand it was a domestic violence call. But you don’t just go in and shoot like you don’t even know what is happening. Especially deputy Brandin Moran, he didn’t even know what was going on,” said Jessica.
They say Reyes was trying to calm the situation down and having watched the video — neither daughter was present — they said it would have worked. .
Two years after his shooting, a grand jury indicted Moran for manslaughter but District Attorney Joe Gonzales declined to prosecute the case. In a statement his office said they didn’t think they could prove the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Sheriff’s department — which had cleared Moran in the shooting — immediately reinstated the deputy after the case was dropped.
Jessica Garcia talked about the rollercoaster of events this summer. First hearing that the man would face a trial, then hearing they dismissed the case.
When do they ever indict an officer and then dismiss it. Just like regular people: they get in trouble, they get indicted, they get charges against them, they don’t dismiss for other normal people. Why an officer?<br/>
“When I finally understood what it meant, I was just crying and crying because I was like, how could they do this to us? How could they do this to my family? They indicted the officer obviously something was wrong. wrong, they saw something wrong. And then they go ahead and they tell us that they dismissed…When do they ever indict an officer and then dismiss it? Just like regular people: they get in trouble, they get indicted, they get charges against them. They don’t dismiss for other normal people, why an officer?” she said.
A few months later, the county settled a federal civil rights case with the family over the shooting for $1.5 million.
Despite the victory the family says justice has not been done in the case.
Moran’s lawyer Nico Lahood told media after his client was cleared — that he used appropriate force and the case should never have been presented to a grand jury.
The Sheriff’s office investigation cleared Moran and the family said it seemed that investigation was aimed at Jesus’ perceived crimes, rather than the shooting.
Having viewed the footage I tell the women there were times watching Reyes’ body camera that I was concerned for LIsa’s welfare. I ask if they think a jury would have seen what they see.
“Yes. I do strongly believe that even if he wasn’t my dad,” said Jessica. “My dad was trying to harm himself. He was never trying to harm my mom. He had a screwdriver to his own neck. the family, the ones who saw the body camera footage my mom that was there to see that to know somebody’s in a crisis, and you kill them. That’s not right. And that’s not the way bexar county should be handling in domestic violence calls or any kind of cause you don’t just go in and shoot somebody.”
Moran still works for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office — it didn’t respond to a request for comments. Moran’s former lawyer Nico LaHood also did not respond to the women’s comments.
”So why does Bexar County why do they think that’s an okay reason for deputy Moran to still be an officer. He could have not just killed my dad. He could have killed my mom too. Because the way he went in and shot just like the grand jury said he went in and he acted recklessly, which he did,” said Herrera.
Jesus Garcia would have been 50 years old this month.
Lisa said they sold the home and property. She never returned after the shooting. Her son Jesus Garcia Jr, moved out of state.