By Rachel Royster
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH — Police on Monday released bodycam footage from the April 28 shooting that wounded a civilian police employee in far north Fort Worth.
Spc. Edward Zapata of the Civilian Response Unit was hit in the face twice, including once in the eye, while responding to take a car burglary report near Basswood Boulevard and North Riverside Drive.
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Angel Cantu, 39, is accused of firing at Zapata from a house across the street multiple times with a pellet gun.
Because the burglary report came in the night prior, the call was not thought to be dangerous.
Once Cantu opened fire, Zapata immediately got the woman he was assisting out of the shooter’s view, police said. Zapata was shot in the face initially, then was hit again in the eye when he went to determine the shooter’s location.
Two police units immediately responded and were able to extract Zapata and his partner from the location.
Zapata, a 30-year-veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, was brought to John Peter Smith Hospital and was released Friday with a police motorcade escorting him home.
Police searched for Cantu for several hours, believing he was armed. Keller ISD schools in the area were on lockdown until late in the afternoon. Residents of the surrounding Summerfields neighborhood were warned by police to stay indoors.
Zapata was dispatched to the far north Fort Worth home at 11:40 a.m. and was shot shortly afterward. Cantu also exchanged gunfire with responding officers, police said, and he was brought into custody at 5:40 p.m. that day. He faces three counts of aggravated assault against a public servant and a parole violation charge, according to Tarrant County Jail records.
At a press conference Monday, Police Chief Eddie Garcia said investigators may never know the reason why Cantu opened fire on Zapata. He said “nothing rational” prompted the violence.
Garcia said the department is considering how to make the Civilian Response Unit safer. Members of the unit do not carry firearms, and that won’t change, he said.
The Civilian Response Unit was created in 2021 with the primary goal of being a force multiplier focused on investigating calls where a suspect is no longer on scene nor thought to return. These civilian employees, who are not certified peace officers, typically fill out paperwork and collect evidence. They respond to roughly 80 calls a day.
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