Police: Shoplifting suspect shot dead after stabbing officer
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A San Antonio police officer and a security guard fatally shot a Black shoplifting suspect Friday after he stabbed the officer in the face, officials said.
The shooting happened about 2:30 p.m. in the parking lot of an H-E-B supermarket in northwest San Antonio. Police Chief William McManus said the security guard suspected the man of shoplifting and detained him inside the store until a police officer arrived. The guard and officer escorted the man to the officer's patrol car.
“The suspect was standing in front of the police vehicle going through some things in his backpack. I’m not sure what that was about. He stepped to his right out of the view of the COBAN (police dashboard camera system), and a second later he came back, very aggressively and very quickly, and stabbed the officer in the face,” McManus said. “It was quite a vicious attack."
The knife used had a blade almost 5 inches (13 centimeters) long, McManus said. When the struggle continued, the officer and the guard fired multiple gunshots, killing the man.
The officer was passing in and out of consciousness en route to the hospital because of blood loss, McManus said. He was listed in serious condition at San Antonio Military Medical Center.
San Antonio has experienced increased tension between law enforcement officers and the Black community in recent days.
A Black man spent two days in jail after he was mistakenly arrested while jogging last month as a domestic violence suspect. McManus has said the officers “acted appropriately” after the man refused to identify himself. Also last month, a sheriff's deputy shot and killed a knife-wielding, troubled Black combat veteran while he and two other deputies had been responding to a call for mental health detention.
