Girlfriend of San Antonio teen Erik Cantu retains high-profile attorney Ben Crump after police shooting

The girlfriend of Erik Cantu, the unarmed teen shot multiple times by a San Antonio police officer in October while eating in a McDonald’s parking lot, has retained the same high-profile civil rights attorney who’s representing Cantu: Ben Crump.

Cantu, 17, spent weeks on life support at University Hospital before finally returned home from the hospital last week. His girlfriend, 18-year-old Emily Proulx, was a passenger in his car when the shooting took place.

Although Proulx was physically unharmed, she suffered “extreme mental trauma” from being involved in the shooting, Crump’s law firm said in an emailed statement.

Officer James Brennand was responding to an unrelated call on Oct. 2 when he approached Cantu’s vehicle and opened fire when it began moving backward. Brennand, who was fired days after the incident, was indicted by a Bexar County grand jury on Thursday on two counts of aggravated assault by a public servant and one count of attempted murder.

Crump has represented the families of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown, becoming almost a household name during the Black Lives Matter groundswell. During a Washington Post interview, the Florida-based lawyer said he turns down dozens of cases annually and only takes on those that “shock the conscience” of the American people.

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This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 12, 2022.