SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police released body-worn camera footage on Thursday from a Northwest Side police shooting earlier this month. The raw footage is one minute, 55 seconds long.
The shooting happened just after noon on May 9 outside the Thai Hut Restaurant location in the 2600 block of North Loop 1604 West near Bitters Road.
When the SAPD officer, later identified as Mark Castillo, arrived at the scene just before noon, he was approached by an employee at the restaurant.
According to the body-worn video, the employee told Castillo that a man, later identified as Sheldon Malachi Butts, “took one of the scissors from the kitchen” after placing a food order.
Castillo asked the employee if Butts still had the pair of scissors on him.
“We don’t know,” the employee told Castillo. “He came back into the restaurant.”
Police said Thursday that Butts then fled to a “wooded area behind the building.”
Castillo found Butts standing in the restaurant’s front parking lot, the video indicates. Castillo asked Butts what his name is, but Butts declined to answer.
“You want to sit down for me?” Castillo said to Butts. “Sit down, brother.”
“I need your gun,” Butts said to Castillo.
“Huh?” Castillo responded.
“I need your gun, so I can kill myself,” Butts said.
The video showed Castillo ask Butts to sit down, but he again insisted he needed Castillo’s gun so he could “kill himself.”
“I’m not going to give you my gun, brother,” Castillo said to Butts, according to the footage.
Butts then mentioned the phrase “qualified immunity” to Castillo, who didn’t appear to hear him when he first said it.
“Qualified immunity,” Butts said to Castillo a second time, the video shows. “It’s all good.”
“Qualified” and “immunity” are two claims often used as common legal strategies to potentially protect public servants from liability.
Castillo then asked Butts to have a seat so they “can talk.” According to the footage, Butts looked elsewhere before taking two steps toward Castillo, who backed away and radioed to fellow officers to “step it up.”
Butts then charged at Castillo, who deployed his pepper spray at him. Castillo began running away from Butts and toward the Thai Hut Restaurant’s front door.
Butts chased after Castillo, the body-worn video shows.
The body camera video then froze for five seconds. When the video resumed, Butts and Castillo were seen in a struggle. SAPD said Butts attempted to reach for Castillo’s “holster.”
The struggle caused Castillo’s body-worn camera to be tossed to the ground at the 1:27 mark of the video.
While it is unclear what is happening for the remainder of the video, at the 1:46 mark of the video, two gunshots were heard and the sound of someone grunting in pain.
“Shots fired. Shots fired,” Castillo was heard saying in the video. “Tried to take my gun.”
Butts was transported to a local hospital in critical condition while Castillo, who has 23 years of service with SAPD, was treated for minor injuries at the scene.
No other injuries were reported. Butts was charged with assaulting a peace officer and taking a weapon from an officer.
Speaking with Butts’ family
Four days after the May 9 shooting, KSAT spoke with Butts’ parents, Sheldon A. Butts and Tawana Gadsden, who both live in South Carolina where the younger Sheldon spent most of his childhood.
Butts’ father said the officer used “excessive force — excessive deadly force to neutralize a threat that was already neutralized.”
“This guy (Castillo) got up. Not only got up, but stepped back,“ the elder Butts said, recounting what witnesses told KSAT. ”So, he had time to think. Even though it’s one or two seconds in between that, you have time to think whether or not you’re gonna cross draw and pull out your Taser or go to your normal draw and pull out (your sidearm).”
The younger Butts moved to San Antonio two years ago, his family said, and works as a server at a different restaurant. He has no criminal record in Bexar County, and Gadsden said he‘s “never been in trouble” or even in a fight.
Gadsden said she spoke with her son on Thursday, the day before the shooting. He sounded “different,” she said, but he reassured her that she didn’t have to worry.
Butts called her on May 12 for the first time since the shooting. Gadsden said her son was glad to hear her voice because he thought she was dead.
“I think that just was a personal — I don’t know. That is still odd for me,” Gadsden said. “But he did tell me he just wasn’t — he felt like he wasn’t there. And I don’t know why. He didn’t tell me why. He didn’t elaborate on why. And I did not ask or got an answer on why.”
Restaurant staff KSAT spoke with on May 9 questioned whether Butts was on drugs or had a mental health issue. Asked about either possibility, Gadsden said her son had no known substance abuse issues and he “does not have psychological issues.”
Gadsden also said his mental health is “kind of irrelevant to what the measures of the officer took.”
“If he was mentally ill, they are trained to handle them in the right way,” Gadsden said on May 13. “The way he (Butts) was handled was wrong.”
More information on Castillo
Castillo has previously been the subject of reporting by KSAT Investigates.
In July 2024, KSAT Investigates reported that the now-former member of SAPD Chief William McManus’ security detail had been sexting with a woman while on duty.
After KSAT’s story ran, Castillo was given a 30-day suspension and moved to the vehicle crimes unit.
Given the chief and Castillo’s familiarity, Gadsden said she thinks McManus should not “even be anywhere close trying to make final decisions for this police officer.”
“For this police officer to be his driver, as well as his top security guy, of course, he’s going to look out for him,” Gadsden said on May 13.
The SAPD Shooting Team and the department‘s Internal Affairs Unit will conduct separate investigations that are being reviewed by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, according to SAPD.
After the shooting, Castillo has since been placed on administrative duty.
More coverage of this story on KSAT:
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