SAN BENITO — City officials are tight-lipped as they await the close of an investigation into the fatal police shooting of a 21-year-old San Benito man nearly six months ago.
June 5 marks the deadline of the police department’s internal affairs investigation, which is expected to determine whether officers violated policy or procedures during events that led to Ricardo Treviño’s death on Dec. 7.
At City Hall, officials declined to disclose whether the investigation’s findings have been released.
Officials also declined to disclose whether Assistant Police Chief Michael Galvan, who served as chief at the time of the shooting, was apparently being considered for a demotion.
Attorneys Rebecca Hayward and Ricardo Navarro, assigned by the Texas Municipal League to represent the city, also declined to answer questions posed to city officials.
“I want the truth to be disclosed — whether they followed policy and procedures,” April Flores, Treviño’s mother, said yesterday.
The investigation will determine whether officers followed policy during “the engagement, the pursuit and the final use of force,” Navarro has said.
If the investigation determines officers violated policy or procedures, disciplinary action could follow.
“If at the conclusion of the city’s internal affairs investigation the interim chief of police determines that disciplinary action is warranted, that action, if any, will be filed with the Civil Service Commission pursuant to the law, rules and regulations and those charges would be subject to public disclosure,” the city stated in a press release issued after officials launched the investigation in late March.
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers continue to conduct a criminal investigation which was expected to be completed by April.
The investigation is expected to determine whether officers were justified in using deadly force to shoot Treviño, who was unarmed when he was repeatedly shot after a car chase ended in El Ranchito.
“We’re waiting patiently on the outcome of the investigation,” John Blaylock, an attorney representing Treviño’s family, said.
Blaylock said Cameron County District Attorney’s officials told him the Texas Rangers were conducting tests to determine who fired the shot or shots that killed Treviño.
“They’re doing some kind of computer rendering of where all the shots were coming from,” Blaylock said.
City Commissioner Rick Guerra said City Manager Manuel De La Rosa is apparently directing police officials.
Commissioners are not involved in overseeing personnel, Commissioner Tony Gonzales said.
“The daily operations are up to the city manager,” Guerra said. “We have nothing to do with it.”
Call for transparency
Art Flores, Flores’ husband who serves as a supervisor at the police department, criticized city officials for failing to disclose information usually released in such investigations into police shootings.
The 24-year department veteran noted the city withheld the names of officers involved in the shooting for about four months despite his family’s repeated requests.
“Since this whole thing began, the transparency hasn’t been there,” he said. “I’m very disappointed in the administration completely.”
Art Flores said officials have delayed disciplinary action against officers who may have violated policy and procedures.
“If I would have violated policy and procedure, I would have been fired already,” he said.
Art Flores said officials have appeared callous to the shooting death of his stepson.
“Speaking as a parent, they kind of put us on the backburner,” he said. “I’m a 24-year veteran of the police department and they haven’t shown me sympathy and remorse.”
The investigation
Navarro has described the internal affairs investigation as “standard procedure” following such incidents as shootings involving police officers.
In late March, officials hired Bruce Mills, a former Austin Police Department assistant chief, and Mary Hesalroad, a former Austin police sergeant, to lead the police department’s internal affairs investigation into officers involved in Treviño’s shooting, including Galvan, Manuel Alvarez, Victor Espitia, Oscar Lara, David Rebolledo and Jose Santos.
Meanwhile, officials appointed Assistant City Manager Fred Bell, whose background includes work in law enforcement, to serve as interim police chief after reassigning Galvan to assistant chief.
Galvan was removed as police chief because his involvement in the shooting prevented him from overseeing the investigation, Navarro said before the reassignment.
Galvan, a 19-year department veteran who served as chief for more than two years, “agreed to step down as police chief so that an interim chief may be appointed to oversee the internal affairs investigation,” a city press release has stated.
Tight deadline
The city had planned to launch its internal affairs probe after the Texas Rangers complete their criminal investigation, Navarro has said.
Officials, he said, were counting on using the Texas Rangers’ evidence as part of the internal affairs investigation.
However, officials decided to launch the investigation before the Texas Rangers complete their probe to avoid missing a Civil Service deadline, Navarro said.
Internal affairs investigations, he said, must be completed within 180 days of the incident.
While the Texas Rangers investigate whether officers were justified in using deadly force, the internal affairs probe is focusing on whether they violated the police department’s policies and procedures.
What happened
The investigation found Treviño was unarmed.
April Flores describes her son as a San Benito High School special education student “with the heart of a child.”
After graduating in 2014, he was studying mechanics at Texas State Technical College, she said.
“I want my son’s name to be cleared,” she said. “He wasn’t a criminal.”
At about 3 p.m. Dec. 7, Treviño drove away from a San Benito church after his cousin called for an ambulance because he had taken too many Tylenol pills.
About a half hour before the shooting, Treviño used his cell phone to record the events leading up to the shooting.
When Treviño saw police following him, he began recording the 12-minute chase down Interstate 69 and onto U.S. 281, where he led about eight law enforcement units to El Ranchito.
As police pursued Treviño’s car, Art Flores was calling dispatchers to tell them police were chasing his stepson.
The Texas Rangers are also investigating whether officers fired at Treviño’s car during the pursuit from San Benito to El Ranchito, where he led law enforcement units to a cul-de-sac off Ranch Park Road.
The Texas Rangers’ preliminary investigation found Treviño used his car as a weapon.
Treviño’s video appears to show him parking his car.
Moments later, the video shows Treviño, who was unarmed, sitting in his car amid a barrage of gunfire at about 3:30 p.m.
