Erik Cantu spent weeks in a San Antonio ICU on a ventilator after being shot multiple times by then-San Antonio police officer James Brennand. Credit: Courtesy Photo / Cantu Family
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with comments from the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office clarifying the reason why Erik Cantu was booked into the Bexar County jail on May 9, 2025.

Erik Cantu — who was shot multiple times by a then-San Antonio police officer in a McDonald’s parking lot — is grabbing headlines again, this time on allegations that he evaded arrest.

Cantu was booked into the Bexar County jail on Friday on charges of evading arrest with a motor vehicle, court records show. The date of the offense was reported as May, 9, 2025.

However, five days after the booking, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office issued a statement revealing that the offense date was printed in error, and Cantu was rebooked into the Bexar County jail on Friday due to a 2024 parole violation of his evading arrest charge in 2023.

Cantu has been in custody since December 2024 and has spent the last several months in a drug treatment facility, the statement added.

The DA’s Office did not immediately respond to the Current’s request for comment about why it took so long for officials there to comment on the case, or why the offense date was misprinted.

The office has faced severe staffing issues for at least a year, and a group of 45 attorneys have voluntarily worked overtime to process backlogged cases, KENS 5 reports.

Cantu’s 2022 shooting by now-former SAPD officer James Brennand grabbed international headlines and roused a debate about police use of force in San Antonio. The shocking incident was caught in body-cam footage that went viral on social media.

Brennand reportedly approached the unarmed Cantu’s car because he believed he recognized from a pursuit earlier in the week. When Cantu, then 17, reversed and tried to exit the parking lot, Brennand opened fire.

SAPD fired Brennand from the force, and he initially faced two counts of aggravated assault by a public servant – both first-degree felonies – and one count of attempted murder. However, in March, a grand jury replaced the attempted murder charge with a lesser charge of deadly conduct.

After the shooting, Cantu spent nearly two months in the hospital recovering from injuries to his stomach, diaphragm, lungs and arm.

Friday’s arrest isn’t the first time Cantu has found himself on the wrong side of the law since the 2022 police shooting.

Cantu was arrested and charged with two counts of felony aggravated assault in September 2023 stemming from separate incidents. He later pled no contest to both charges and was fined $2,000, ordered to complete 200 hours of community service and had his driver’s license suspended for two years. He also was granted seven years’ deferred adjudication.

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This article appears in Apr 30 – May 13, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a Staff Writer at the San Antonio Current. He is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., whose work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Orlando...