San Antonio police shot a teen after he allegedly charged officers with knives, following efforts to de-escalate the situation.
SAN ANTONIO — Letty Ybarbo says she was working in her front yard on West Dickson, just off Southwest Military Drive, when she heard men repeating emphatically “Put it down! Put it down!”
She said she was shocked when she looked up and saw two police officers confronting a man who appeared to be coming after them with objects in his hands.
“These two police officers were pointing their gun at this young guy. I thought I saw something in his hands, and I got scared and I ran inside,” Ybarbo said, adding that as soon as she locked her door, “We heard the two shots.”
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the two officers, who have dealt with this kind of incident here before, tried their best to de-escalate a fast-moving but dangerous situation.
Providing preliminary information, McManus said “There was a call for a young man in the 300 block of Dickson who was hurting himself with a knife. When officers arrived, they stayed outside, and they spoke to a supervisor telling him that they were going to leave the individual in the house since no one else was in there.”
But what happened next, happened so fast there wasn’t even time to call for help from a mental health team, McManus said, explaining “Officers didn’t have enough time since he charged out as soon as he came outside the house.”
“As the officers were on the phone with the supervisor the individual came out the door and started walking toward the officers. He had two knives in his hands. The officers backed up, backed up, continued to back up, actually ran back, as the individual was advancing on them,” McManus said, adding that when the 16-year-old suspect threw a knife at officers, one of them deployed a Taser to stop the attack.
“The Taser didn’t connect and it didn’t have an effect on the individual because both contacts didn’t connect and at that point, the young man started running after the officer with the knife, and at that point the officer shot,” McManus said, adding “There was a very, very diligent effort made by the officers to de-escalate this and back off, hopefully not having to use force on the individual.”
McManus said the teen was shot once in the shoulder and once in the thigh and he was rushed to the hospital. Due to his age, a condition update isn’t available, but at the time the teen was said to be stable.
The officers, who each have six years of service with the department, were not injured. McManus said the incident will be reviewed both by the Internal Affairs division and by the District Attorney’s office.
Because the incident involves a juvenile, video of the incident is not subject to release. Subsection 20.B of the SAPD policy on body worn camera video states: “Release of any information related to juvenile suspects, including recordings, is prohibited by Texas law and will not be released.”
Once he is released from the hospital, it’s possible the teen may face charges in the juvenile system.