Erik Cantu Jr., the 17-year-old who has been in the hospital for weeks after being shot by former San Antonio Police officer James Brennand, is awake and alert, according to an update from his father on his GoFundMe page.
“After 6 long weeks and by the grace of God along with all the prayers sent by the masses we are emerging victoriously from this unfortunate event!!!” Cantu Jr.’s father, Erik Cantu Sr., said.
Cantu has undergone numerous surgeries and was on life support for multiple weeks after being shot at least four times in his stomach, liver, lungs, and diaphragm.
The teenager was shot on Oct. 2 after Brennand, a probationary officer at the time, approached his vehicle in a McDonald’s parking lot after he recognized it as one that had fled a traffic stop the previous day.
After Brennand forced open Cantu’s door and demanded he get out, Cantu put the car in reverse and attempted to flee.
After the open car door struck the officer and pushed him back, Brennand shot multiple times into the vehicle.
Cantu then pulled the door closed and began driving away from the officer. Brennand fired several more times at the vehicle. A 17-year-old female in the passenger seat was uninjured.
Brennand was fired shortly after the shooting and charged a week and a half later with two counts of first-degree felony aggravated assault by a public servant, a charge that carries a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum sentence of 99 years.
In mid-October, Cantu’s parents retained Ben Crump, a high-profile civil rights lawyer who also represented the families of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin.
In the GoFundMe post, Cantu Sr. said his son was still years away from a full recovery, but that he is moving in the right direction.
“We still have one more potential surgery and weeks and months and years of rehab but he’s proving he can do it,” he said.
In recent weeks, it was uncertain whether Cantu would survive his injuries.
In a press conference on Oct. 25, Cantu Sr. and Cantu's mother, Victoria Casarez, spoke for the first time since the shooting, and they asked for prayers that their son would recover.
Cantu Sr. said his son experienced convulsions from efforts by doctors to wean him off of the fentanyl they prescribed him, and his mother said her son was “just mutilated.”
Crump said the parents were seeking criminal, civil, and legislative justice for their son.
At that press conference, Crump said District Attorney Joe Gonzales needed to “throw the book” at Brennand and that the current charges weren’t enough.
Casarez called for attempted murder charges to be brought against Brennand, as many activists and supporters had also done in the days and weeks following the shooting.
There is technically no statute for “attempted murder” in the Texas criminal code. Instead, when an individual is being charged for attempting a particular crime, such as murder, they are charged at one degree lower.
In this case, that could be second-degree murder. Second-degree murder carries a sentence of two to 20 years, a much smaller range than the five to 99 that Brennand currently faces for first-degree aggravated assault.
A pre-hearing for Brennand’s case is scheduled for Nov. 23.
