23-year-old Cameron Redus was shot five times at close range by Cpl. Christopher Carter, a University of Incarnate Word police officer, during a traffic stop in the early hours of December 6th 2013, near the San Antonio campus.
KENS-TV report that the autopsy performed the following day showed Redus, a student at the private Catholic university, was shot in the back, left eye, upper chest, left elbow, and right hip.
According to the medical examiner, the bullet that was “the most immediately lethal” entered the student’s back, severed his spinal cord, hit a major blood vessel in his chest, and became lodged in the sac surrounding his heart. The autopsy also found that the gunshot wound to his eye could also have been fatal.
The autopsy noted a number of wounds around the student’s neck, but found such contusions could have occurred when Redus was thrown to the ground or by a nearby gunshot wound.
A toxicology report found that Redus’ blood-alcohol content was 0.155, nearly twice the legal limit for driving in Texas, and a separate test conducted using vitreous fluid from the student’s eye showed a higher 0.186 level.
Redus also tested positive for trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, the active component in marijuana.
The San Antonio Express-News reports that the Police say Carter spotted Redus driving erratically at around 2 in the morning, and followed the student’s pickup outside his jurisdiction, but the officer was authorized to arrest suspected drunken drivers anywhere in the state.
Carter activated his emergency lights near Treehouse Apartments, where Redus parked and got out of the vehicle.
According to Raw Story:
A microphone on Carter’s uniform recorded the officer ordering Redus 14 times to place his hands behind his back and telling him three times he was under arrest, police said. A dashboard camera in the officer’s police cruiser did not record the six-minute encounter.
Carter told Redus to stop resisting 56 times, police said, and the officer said the student grabbed his baton at one point and struck him with it.
The officer said he shot Redus after regaining control of the baton, saying the student charged him with his hand raised.
Witnesses reported that the officer never warned Redus before emptying his gun on the student after he made a derisive remark.
“I heard (the student) say, ‘Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?’ like sarcastic almost,” said witness Mohammad Haidarasl.
Redus’ family said the toxicology report shows the student made poor choices prior to his confrontation with the officer, but that he posed no public threat after parking his vehicle safely and walking toward his apartment.
“We are confident that had this encounter taken place on a public roadway and during a routine traffic stop that Cameron’s alleged response and the ultimate outcome of this event would have been different,” his family said in the statement.
They also agreed with law enforcement officials that, had a back up officer been present, the outcome would likely have been different.
“While mistakes do bear consequences, the extreme and brutal results of Cameron’s encounter with Officer Carter far exceed the magnitude of his mistakes,” family members said. “We continue to wait on justice to be done and we maintain our faith and trust in God’s amazing love.”
In response to the latest findings from the autopsy, the family expressed their struggle to comprehend how such a brutal attack was perpetrated on their son, seemingly out of all proportionality:
“We are stunned to learn that Cameron was shot in the back from very close range,” the student’s family said in a statement. “The report also shows that the shot to his eye was delivered at a downward angle, again from very close range. That knowledge coupled with information from the earlier police report indicating that Cameron died on his back with his legs underneath him has left us heartbroken and shaken to the core.”
The officer has been suspended while the investigation continues.
Watch this video report posted online by KENS-TV:
