Officials investigate death of Texas student during traffic stop

A traffic stop that turned deadly for an honor student at a Roman Catholic university near San Antonio continues to roil officials who have promised to investigate the incident.

Robert Cameron Redus, 23, a student at the University of the Incarnate Word, was shot five times during a confrontation last Friday with Christopher Carter, an officer with university’s police force. The incident took place a few blocks off campus.

“Our family does not believe the officer’s report,” the family wrote in a statement that was sent to the San Antonio Express-News and other media outlets Tuesday. “Cameron has never been an aggressive or confrontational person. ... For him to confront a police officer would be completely out of his character.”

Authorities insist the officer acted properly.

Richard Pruitt, chief of police of Alamo Heights, the suburb where the incident took place, said at a news conference this week that Redus had been driving erratically and Carter pulled the student over near the apartment complex where Redus lived.

“Officer Carter instructed Redus 14 times to place his hands behind his back,” Pruitt said. “He informed him three times he was under arrest, and told him 56 times to stop resisting.”

Pruitt said Redus grabbed Carter’s baton and attacked the officer. Carter regained control of the baton and shot Redus five times when he charged at him. Redus was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Texas Rangers and the local police are investigating the incident, the family said.

Redus was in his last year at the University of the Incarnate Word and had done well, earning a spot on the dean’s list. He spent Thursday evening with friends celebrating the end of the fall semester, his family said in their statement.

“We question the campus officer’s decision to follow an unknown person from an off-campus location to his off-campus apartment. Cameron drove his truck to his designated, covered parking spot at the Treehouse Apartments off Grandview Place in Alamo Heights. Even if Cameron was driving erratically, he presented no threat to the campus police officer or anyone else once he parked his truck,” they said.

According to Pruitt, Redus and Carter struggled when the officer tried to handcuff Redus during the traffic stop. Redus wrestled Carter’s baton away and hit him before Carter retrieved it and warned Redus to stop or be shot, Pruitt said.

Redus turned around and charged Carter with an arm raised to strike him, Pruitt said. Carter fired his .40-caliber semiautomatic weapon six times, hitting Redus five times -- in the chest, neck, eye, arm and thigh, Pruitt said.

The patrol car’s dash cam was not working, Pruitt said. An audio recording of the shooting has not been released.

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