Danny Cantu is a diesel mechanic who says Dallas Police tossed a flash-bang grenade through his window while he was making a sandwich. In a lawsuit filed back in January, he claims they kicked in the door and yelled, "Get on the ground!" and that he kindly obliged. Then, he claims, the officers kicked and punched him until he was unconscious and lying in a pool of his own blood.
Now, the officers in question have finally responded.
Cantu says he suffered a broken nose, a concussion, a broken orbital bone, traumatic brain injury, loss of vision in his left eye and loss of hearing in his left ear. The encounter, he alleges, was permanently disfiguring. What's more, Cantu claims it was all for nothing.
Well, nothing except 0.1 grams of cocaine (sufficient to get a Lhasa Apso mildly buzzed); a pair of nunchaku; and a sawed-off shotgun. Turns out, the police did have a search warrant for narcotics, according to a recent answer to Cantu's complaint, filed on behalf of the first officer through the door. But after the smoke cleared and Cantu was hauled downtown, they turned him loose without charge.
Whether it was a case of bad timing or bad intel, the court filings for the first time challenge Cantu's assertion that he merely stood like an obliging deer in the headlights of a SWAT-style incursion. According to the officer, Cantu "paused and then ran through the house." The officers gave chase. One of them says he "pushed Cantu forward" in the kitchen. Another says he "fell on top" of Cantu. Neither, of course, say they kicked the ever-lovin' crap out of him.
So, you know, one thing leads to another and now the sandwich-crafting diesel mechanic says his eye bone is broken.
