SAN ANTONIO — An attorney representing the family of a 13-year-old boy shot and killed by San Antonio Police shed additional details on the deadly shooting that took place on the south side.
On June 3, around 1:00 am, San Antonio Police say they responded to the 5100 block of War Cloud for multiple shots fired calls. Family later identified the shooting victim as 13-year-old AJ Hernandez.
During a news conference on Tuesday, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, representing Hernandez’s family, says they sat down with SAPD to watch some of the bodycam video showing the shooting.
Lynda Espinoza, AJ’s mom, says she did not watch the bodycam video.
"It's very traumatizing, and I want justice for AJ," Espinoza said.
Police say when attempting to stop a stolen Toyota Corolla, it crashed into an officer’s patrol vehicle.
Merritt says what the video shows was not a crash, and all the vehicles involved were not traveling faster than 5 miles per hour at any point during this incident.
“This was not a collision. There was contact, but this was not a deadly threat, it was a little boy behind the wheel of the car, surprised there was not one but two officers were behind him,” Merritt said.
SAPD claims the second officer on scene—later identified as Stephen Ramos—feared the other officer would be struck by the vehicle and fired a single shot, hitting Hernandez.
According to Merritt, the first officer's window was down and he began speaking to the suspects in the Corolla from his police cruiser before he climbed out of his vehicle onto the hood of the car.
Merritt says Officer Ramos gave no verbal warning before firing his weapon.
“Within one second of Mr. Ramos exiting his vehicle, he had already fired upon the vehicle occupied by Mr. Hernandez,” Merritt said.
Right after being shot, Merritt says the bodycam video shows Hernandez getting out of the car with his hands up and then collapsing near the side of the car.
"[Hernandez] then collapsed to the ground letting officers know, 'I have been shot sir,' they were telling him to keep his hands up and he says, 'I can't, I've been shot sir, please help,'" Merritt says.
Merritt claims officers handcuffed Hernandez, and SAPD says he was treated by on-scene officers until EMS arrived.
Merritt says the videos SAPD showed to them stopped once Hernandez was handcuffed.
It's not clear why Hernandez was driving the car, which SAPD says was stolen 12 days prior to the shooting. Last May after his sister Nevaeh Martinez was killed in a shooting not far from the scene, Hernandez ran away and was "off the grid" according to Merritt.
"We don't know what he was doing during the time period his sister passed and was buried to the point he was killed," Merritt said.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by KENS 5, Hernandez was arrested in a human smuggling case in Kinney County in April. While attorneys didn't confirm he was a suspect, the birthdate on the affidavit matches the one displayed on a banner near Hernandez's memorial.
The family is asking for Officer Ramos to be charged with murder, and after a meeting with prosecutors, they say the case will be submitted to a grand jury.
KENS 5 received a statement from the San Antonio City Attorney Andy Segovia about the case:
“The City will respect the investigatory process and the State law regarding information that cannot be shared for incidents involving juveniles. As part of the standard process, there is an active and ongoing internal investigation. Following this, it will be provided to the Bexar County District Attorney's Office for independent review. The officer involved has been placed on administrative duty, pending the outcome of this investigation. Of course, without waiting for the facts, Mr. Merritt will say the shooting was not justified, he is advocating for his client. We also expect any information shared publicly by Mr. Merritt concerning the video will be calculated to advance his perspective.”
Merritt says they plan to file a civil suit within the next ten days against the City of San Antonio and Officer Stephen Ramos.
According to SAPD, Officer Ramos has three years’ experience with the department and is on administrative duty until further notice.