13-year-old Texas boy fatally shot by police after stealing car, ramming officers' vehicle

On June 3, 2022, 13-year-old Andre "AJ" Hernandez was shot dead by San Antonio Police Officer Stephen Ramos after the teenager rammed another Texas cop's cruiser with a stolen vehicle and the courts declined to press charges against Officer Ramos following a review from the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office to a grand jury.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, a memo from the DA's office detailing the shoot states, "It was reasonable for Officer Ramos to believe that Officer Espinoza was standing outside of his vehicle and was therefore being threatened with deadly force by the red Toyota as it accelerated towards him. These facts led Officer Ramos to believe that Officer Espinoza was being threatened with deadly force. Thus he used deadly force to prevent unjustified harm to Officer Espinoza."

It is standard practice for the DA's office to present a case involving any shooting with a police officer to a Bexar County grand jury for review. 

Along with the memo, a compilation of officer body cam footage was released that detailed the events of the night.

Hernandez was driving a stolen red Toyota Corolla and was accompanied by two other juveniles on the night of June 3, 2022.

Reports came in to authorities around 1 am of loud music and gunfire, as many as 20 shots, in the Indian Creek community. According to the San Antonio Express-News, residents of the community had complained for weeks about the music and gunfire and said that sometimes people would brandish guns in front of random homes. The residents took pictures of one of the cars they say was responsible and passed them along to authorities. On the night of June 3, one resident called and said, "All I can hear is just the bullets, or, you know, the gun."

Ramos and another police vehicle, a Chevy Tahoe driven by an officer identified as Espinoza, located and pursued the Corolla. Another officer identified as Claire also responded.

The video shows that after the officers pin the Corolla down, Espinoza stops his Tahoe and begins to exit while the Corolla is still frantically driving.

Ramos shouts, "Don’t let him ram you!" and Espinoza brings his legs back into his vehicle and yells "Let me see your hands!" moments before the Carolla rams the vehicle.

Ramos gets out of his car immediately after and fires his weapon.

Hernandez was struck and they administered first aid at the scene, but he was pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital.

According to the New York Post, the DA's office said the incident was a "tragedy" because Hernandez was a minor but his age was not known to Ramos at the time and did not "mitigate the threat to Officer Espinoza."

Local News reports, a lawyer for Hernandez's family, Lee Merritt, said, "This officer has killed two human beings, he has no business in the profession of policing."

"Those cars were never going more than 5 miles per hour and AJ Hernandez never represented a deadly threat to anyone," Merritt added.