Condition of Texas teen who ate touch-and-go burger

A teenager shot by a San Antonio police officer while eating a hamburger in his car three weeks ago is still hospitalized and in “very critical condition,” his father said Tuesday in the family’s first public comments since the shooting.

“He’s getting a little better, his wounds are healing, but the wounds that he’s had, they’re big, there’s a lot of them,” Eric Cantu Sr. said at a news conference.

Family attorney Ben Crump, who has taken on some of the nation’s most high-profile police killings of black people, said the family was told the now-fired officer who shot and killed 17-year-old Eric Cantu Jr. was racially profiling him in search of of the Spanish-speaking suspect.

Cantu was shot and killed on October 2 by Officer James Brennand in a McDonald’s parking lot. After the shooting, the 27-year-old rookie officer was fired and charged with aggravated assault by an officer. Police said Brenand violated training and police procedures by approaching the car.

In the video released by police, Brennand opens the car door and tells Kant to get out. The car backs up with the doors open and the officer fires several shots into the car. He continues to shoot as the car drives away.

Police said Brennand was responding to an unrelated disturbance when he saw Canta in a car he believed had eluded him the day before during a traffic stop attempt. Brennand said he suspected the vehicle was stolen.

Police said that although the license plates did not match the vehicle Cantu was driving, the vehicle itself was not stolen.

Crump said the Bexar County District Attorney told the family that an officer was looking for a Hispanic teenager with a goatee, and he profiled Cantu. The district attorney’s office told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it does not comment publicly on pending cases.

“That’s what hurts is that he was profiled and he was brutally injured because of it,” Eric Cantu Sr. said.

Crump said the teenager “continues to fight for his life on life support.”

The teenager’s mother, Victoria Casares, said she did not know how many times her son had been shot. She said four bullets were found in his body, including one near his heart.

She said he was wounded in the stomach, diaphragm, lungs, liver and arm.

“He’s just mutilated and it hurts us to see our son like this,” she said.

Brenand was released from jail on recognizance. A message left with Brennan’s attorney was not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.

Brennand was charged with two counts of aggravated assault by a public official because Cantu’s vehicle was also a passenger. The passenger was not injured.