SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police said a man who reached for an officer’s weapon during a struggle was shot twice and critically injured Friday outside a North Side restaurant.
The shooting happened outside the Thai Hut restaurant in the 2600 block of North Loop 1604 West near Bitters Road following the report of a theft.
Restaurant employees told KSAT a customer walked into their kitchen, grabbed a pair of scissors and took off. They said he later came back and told them to call police, which they already had on the SAPD’s non-emergency line. Though, a manager said she called police again at that point.
SAPD Chief William McManus said in a news conference at the scene that one of his officers had tried to talk to the 24-year-old suspect. McManus said the man attacked the officer, and they fought outside the restaurant.
The manager confirmed she saw police talking to the man before the scuffle, which she did not witness herself.
McManus said the officer, a 23-year veteran, deployed pepper spray on the suspect, but the struggle between them continued.
During the struggle, the SAPD chief said the man reached for the officer’s weapon, which caused the officer to push the suspect away. McManus said the officer drew his weapon and shot the suspect twice outside the restaurant.
The suspect was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, and the officer sustained minor injuries that were treated at the scene, SAPD said.
McManus said it was unknown if the suspect was armed with the pair of scissors at the time of the struggle or at the time of the shooting.
The chief also said it is unknown if the suspect threatened anyone at the restaurant.
Thai Hut staff who spoke with KSAT didn’t mention the man making any threats.
A diner at the restaurant, Jamelia Roach, said it appeared staff were escorting the man out of the restaurant when she arrived.
“He didn’t seem belligerent or anything at the time,” Roach said. “He was very calm.”
Sitting at the front of the restaurant, Roach said she saw the man walk away and come back a few minutes later.
“And as he approached over by the barrier there, I saw that cop that was on foot come over. Looks like he kind of took him down, maybe to subdue him,” Roach recalled. “And then I saw them tussling.”
“The victim was on the bottom, and he was going at the cop’s face. It didn’t look like he had anything in his hands, but from what I could see, he was just kind of attacking the cop. The cop then stands up, fires two shots."
Roach estimated the two were tussling for at least a minute. While she didn’t see the officer use pepper spray, she saw a container on the ground later.
Asked whether it made sense to her that the man had been shot, Roach said, “From what I could see, no. But, again, I’m not out here, so I can’t say that I saw everything because there are bushes right there. So... it just seemed a little quick for that type of escalation.”
Brandi Shaler was driving past the fighting pair in the parking lot when the shooting happened. She also said the officer was on top and said it looked like the officer was trying to “put his arm under the guy’s stomach.”
“(The officer) was trying to get under the stomach — for what, I’m not sure. It felt as though he was, like, ‘Agh, I can’t’ and just kind of got up, but I don’t know,“ Shaler said.
“And then, yeah, I just saw him jump up and back into the road, and then the other guy tried to get up. And as he did, he (the SAPD officer) shot him twice."
The SAPD Shooting Team and the department‘s Internal Affairs Unit will conduct separate investigations that will be reviewed by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, according to SAPD.
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