Incident: Sunday, August 16, 2026, Spring Front Drive, San Antonio, Texas. Footage released by the San Antonio Police Department: September 16, 2026.
Shortly before midnight, a woman called the San Antonio Police Department about her boyfriend. On the officer’s camera she says Gregory Boaz, 56, had taken too much of his medication and was hallucinating, and that he had scared her badly. Asked if there were weapons in the house, she said no. Walking toward the house with the officer, she told him Boaz had two knives. One officer, alone, near midnight.
Boaz came out from the back of the house and ran toward the officer, who yelled at him to back up. He stopped, turned away, still holding a knife. The officer told him to put it down. Then he ran at the officer, and the officer fired. Boaz died at the scene. Nobody else was hurt. One officer fired, a one-year officer, per the department.
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He is dead, so there is no case against him. Nobody else was charged. The shooting has not been ruled on. The SAPD Shooting Team and Internal Affairs are running separate investigations, and the Bexar County District Attorney is reviewing. No grand jury action has been reported.
This is a no-brainer to clear legally. The officer is there for a legal reason because he was called. The man has two knives, one in each hand. He gets chances to put them down, and then he runs at him. You do not get paid to get murdered in this job. People make their own decisions when they do this kind of thing, whether he was on his meds or hallucinating or whatever the reason. You simply cannot rush at the police with two knives and not expect to get shot.
This officer did a great job, and he is handling the call by himself. This is your typical run-of-the-mill call that went sideways extremely fast. You hear him ask the girlfriend if there are any weapons in the house and she says no. Then right before Boaz comes out, she says oh yeah, he has two knives. I guess she was thinking guns.
Boaz is already acting strange the first time he comes out. He is lucky he did not get shot right there. The officer is giving good commands, backing up, giving space. Boaz is wigging out about a dog or some animal behind him, and that buys the officer a second to get on the radio and tell his backup to step it up. Then Boaz comes at him.
The distance at the end was very close. I do not have anything critical to say about it, because of the way it happened. The officer had Boaz turned around and was giving him commands, and Boaz turned and ran at him. There was no more time. You are never going to dump your lethal for a Taser at that point. I do not recommend going gun to Taser, with different things in your hands, ever. The only option this officer had was the one he took.
Another mental-health case. It does not read like a suicide by cop. It reads like somebody who wigged out on his medication, and you can see it on the camera. It is unfortunate, and it was not the officer’s decision. Good job.
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