SAN ANTONIO – A man was shocked by a Taser weapon during a chaotic encounter between a San Antonio police officer and several people at a Southwest Side property last month. Cell phone camera footage shared with KSAT Investigates shows the force was strong enough to knock the man out of one of his shoes.
The footage shared through KSAT Connect, shows SAPD Officer Anthony Aldaco twice using his department-issued Taser on Benjamin Aguirre, 24, after Aguirre repeatedly resisted the officer’s attempts to detain him.
Witnesses to the incident told KSAT in recent weeks that Aldaco used excessive force, while SAPD officials said the officer acted appropriately “in a very tense situation.”
“You can’t do that, sir. You can’t do that.”
Aldaco was patrolling near the 100 block of Spaatz Street on June 17 when he got a call for a stolen truck that was pinging in the area, an SAPD incident report states.
After spotting a truck parked outside a home on Spaatz St., Aldaco ran the temporary plate, which came back to the man who reported the truck stolen, the report states.
After seeing a woman and Aguirre get out of the truck, Aldaco asked him if he knew who owned the vehicle. Aguirre answered that he did not know who owned the truck and that “he was just checking it out,” according to the report.
Aldaco then informed Aguirre he was being detained and the officer attempted to grab the man’s wrist, the report states.
The cell phone footage, which is more than two and a half minutes in length, repeatedly shows Aguirre pulling away from Aldaco as the officer attempts to put him in handcuffs.
“You can’t do that, sir. You can’t do that,” Aguirre told the officer.
People gathered outside the home appear to get more agitated as Aldaco struggles to get Aguirre to comply.
“Why the (expletive) are you in our (expletive) house you (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) cop? You (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) pig. Get the (expletive) out you (expletive) fat (expletive),” the man recording the footage said, as Aguirre is shown pushing into a washing machine and tripping over a ladder in the yard.
Aguirre eventually attempts to climb stairs and enter the residence, at which point Aldaco deploys his stun gun, knocking off Aguirre’s right shoe.
Aguirre’s body makes a loud thud off-screen as it lands on the floor of the home.
While Aldaco later wrote in his report that he holstered his stun gun and only delivered a second electrical charge to Aguirre after the man again pulled away and refused commands, the footage shows the stun gun remained unholstered and pointed at Aguirre prior to Aguirre being shocked a second time.
Aldaco said Aguirre began to cooperate after being shocked the second time, but that other people inside the home continued to be aggressive and threaten him, forcing him to point the stun gun at them, the report states.
Charging of Aguirre delayed after he told booking staff he swallowed meth
Aguirre was taken to a hospital to be medically cleared, records show.
He was then taken to the central magistrate’s office, where a search of Aguirre revealed he had a small, clear bag with a crystal-like substance in his right pocket. The substance tested positive for methamphetamine, Aguirre’s arrest report states.
Aguirre was then taken to a second hospital after he told booking staff he swallowed meth, the report states.
Aguirre was eventually booked on charges of resisting arrest, evading arrest, possession of a controlled substance under a gram and failure to identify to a police officer, SAPD records show.
Aguirre and a second person seen inside the stolen truck are listed as suspects for unauthorized use of a vehicle, the SAPD incident report states.
KSAT could find no record that Aguirre has been formally charged in connection with the stolen vehicle.
Despite Aguirre repeatedly identifying himself to officers as “Alex Moriega” and providing a false date of birth, prosecutors rejected the failure to ID and resisting arrest charges filed against him, court records show.
Aguirre, who declined to be interviewed on camera for this story, told KSAT via telephone this month he simply wanted to know why he was being detained and that Aldaco did not provide an explanation prior to trying to put him in handcuffs.
SAPD: Aldaco was in “fresh pursuit” of Aguirre
After witnesses to the encounter complained to KSAT that Officer Aldaco had entered the home, SAPD officials described the officer as being in “fresh pursuit” of a suspect the officer reasonably believed had committed a felony offense.
“He had the authority to enter the residence and attempt the arrest,” said Officer Juan Mandujano, a 24-year veteran of SAPD who has trained cadets for the past 14 years.
Mandujano teaches patrol tactics and is the department’s master Taser instructor.
“When can you use the Taser? When lesser means have failed to accomplish that arrest. So, if I’ve already tried verbal and hands-on and that’s not working, then our policy allows us to move up to the next force available, which would be intermediate weapons,” said Mandujano.
“He was in a very tense situation with multiple people, potentially aggressors, threatening and yelling. So, he had the urgency to try and get this person into custody as quickly as possible. And the Taser was probably the best tool to use,” said Mandujano.
After Aguirre was shocked a second time, the man recording the cell phone footage said he was going to “(expletive) up” the officer. The officer was also targeted with racial slurs and called a “peon” after entering the residence.
Mandujano added that it is “not uncommon” for officers to forget small details about their encounters with the public when under stress.
“We see it over and over again,” said Mandujano, when asked about Aldaco’s written report claiming he had holstered his stun gun before shocking Aguirre a second time.
Aldaco was the only officer present during the stun gun incident, the footage shows.
“Because of our manpower status, we operate in single-unit vehicles. That is the nature of our job. Sometimes we have to start the process by ourselves and call for help,” said Mandujano.
Mandujano allowed KSAT to go through several use-of-force scenarios on the department’s virtual training simulator.
The simulator allows SAPD cadets to practice different use-of-force techniques in a contained setting.
The scenarios KSAT took part in included a disgruntled employee armed with a gun who attempted to enter a building full of people and an armed man in a courtroom holding a woman at gunpoint.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.