San Antonio’s ‘shit sandwich’ cop hired again as South Texas police officer

Matthew Luckhurst, the fired San Antonio police officer once accused of giving a homeless man a sandwich full of dog feces, has managed to find work again as a gun-carrying police officer.

Luckhurst, who was terminated from the San Antonio Police Department in 2020, now wears a badge in service of the South Texas town of Benavides, city officials there confirmed to the Current.

Despite Luckhurst being hit with two serious disciplinary actions while at SAPD, Benavides Police Chief Andre Hines said the former officer met employment standards outlined by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

“As required by the State of Texas, we have to do a background check,” Hines said. “And so when [Luckhurst] was applying for employment here with the city of Benavides, we request all information from these previous agencies that he has worked for.”

Hines said he was aware of Luckhurst’s SAPD disciplinary records when he offered him the job. Luckhurst has worked for the Benavides for roughly a year, City Secretary Rosalina Flores told the Current.

Luckhurst is one of just two police officers employed by the town of more than 1,000 people located 123 miles south of San Antonio.

Luckhurst’s last known prior employment as a cop came in 2021, when he was hired as a reserve officer in the Alamo City bedroom community of Floresville. However, that city ended his employment in late 2022 after news organizations reported on his disciplinary record with SAPD.

San Antonio street artist Joshua “Lakey” Hinson broke the news of Luckhurst’s return to police work earlier this week via an Instagram video clip. The post on Hinson’s account drew comments of shock and disgust.

“He sounds like a real shitty person who needs to seek some form of mental health assistance,” Instagram user @saving_teeth__cats_and_dogs commented on Hinson’s video.

For folks not in the know, SAPD investigators accused Luckhurst in 2016 of giving a sandwich filled with canine feces to a homeless man on the streets of San Antonio.

A month later, Luckhurst found himself in deep shit again over allegations he defecated in an SAPD women’s restroom without flushing and rubbed “a brown substance with the consistency of tapioca” on the toilet seat after a female officer asked that the facilities be kept clean.

SAPD fired Luckhurst for the sandwich incident, but he was reinstated in 2019 after an arbitrator ruled the department failed to discipline him within 180 days of the incident as required under local government code.

The department finally kicked Luckhurst to the curb in 2020 over the incident involving the women’s bathroom. That firing survived an appeal to an arbitrator.

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This article appears in Dec 26, 2024 – Jan 1, 2025.