SAN ANTONIO — Fighting back tears, grieving mother Eva Garcia admits her son Ruben Garcia has had some run-ins with the law. But, she says, he never sought confrontations with them.
“My son has little petty crimes. Resisting arrest, marijuana, not reporting to court. He has never been violent,” Garcia said.
“My son always ran from the cops. He wanted to avoid going to jail,” she continued. “He wasn't doing nothing. He wasn't breaking into an apartment. He wasn't breaking into no cars. He was just standing talking to somebody.”
But that parking lot conversation early in the morning of Oct. 21 turned deadly, Garcia said, when a police officer on patrol spotted her son and gave chase.
Garcia met with police in advance of the public release of body camera footage late Wednesday, for a private screening.
“I saw my son running. Then I see him on the ground shaking his shoulders and telling the officer ‘Boss! Boss! My head! My head! I'm bleeding. Boss. Boss.’ Like giving up. And the cop just pushed him and shot him. Four times!” Garcia said, adding emphatically, “He killed my son! My son was already on the ground on his knees! He was on his knees!"
Garcia said seeing her son on the ground, bleeding and begging for safety, while being repeatedly shot in the back, was heartbreaking.
“When they shot him, they stopped the video because the cop told me 'I don't think you want to see your son's lifeless body," Garcia said.
The mother, who lost another son to gun violence in July, said coping with this second death has been overwhelming.
“I never saw my son point a gun at the officer. He never disrespected him. He wasn’t calling him names. He was just telling him he's bleeding!” Garcia said.
Garcia said in the video she was allowed to view, she never saw a gun and she said witnesses have told her they believe her son had a small, portable speaker on him, not a gun.
“I talked to a witness. He had a speaker in his waistband. They were listening to music. It fell out of his waistband and the cop kicked it. They said he had a gun but they never showed a gun. Where was the gun?” Garcia said, adding she doesn’t understand the information shared by investigators.
“They told me there was a gun by his face. Then they said he had a gun and his hand was on top. Then the captain said his hands were under his tummy when he fell forward, so I don't understand,” Garcia said.
Watching another angle of the incident, Garcia said the officer involved in the shooting could be seen in, what she said, an upset state.
“The officer was pacing up and down real fast and the detective said ‘Yes that's a reaction’ and I said ‘Yes, I understand that's a reaction of murder! That's why he's pacing up and down, because he murdered my son!” Garcia said.
As is their usual practice, the police department posted the video of the incident after the close of business.
Historically, the department and prosecutors decline to comment on any pending case.
Garcia said investigators told her the case would be turned over to the District Attorney’s office, and prosecutors would decide whether or not the case would be presented to a grand jury.
Knowing it will be a long wait for answers, Garcia said she will continue to fight for a full and complete account of the evidence, so justice will be served.
“I have to stay strong. I have to get justice for my two sons. I’m not going to give up,” Garcia said through tears.