A San Antonio family is taking two city police officers to federal court, accusing them of using excessive force in the March 4, 2024, shooting that killed 35-year-old Raymond Mireles. The federal civil-rights lawsuit, filed Feb. 20, 2026, says officers confronted Mireles at night from an unmarked van on the 2800 block of Ravina Drive, and that he was struck multiple times before being taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. The family is seeking damages for wrongful death, loss of companionship, funeral costs and punitive damages.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, names Officer Juan Dominguez and Detective James Quintanilla as defendants, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The lawsuit quotes the filing as saying, "Mr. Mireles had no reason to know the individuals confronting him were police officers," and argues that the covert tactics used that night set the stage for the deadly encounter.
What police released
In April 2024, the San Antonio Police Department released body-worn camera footage that it said shows covert-unit officers approaching Mireles as he walked toward a vehicle. In the video, Detective Quintanilla can be heard shouting "Police, police" shortly before shots are fired, according to the City of San Antonio. The news release states that officers reported Mireles reached for a handgun and that a loaded firearm was recovered at the scene. EMS transported him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The release also notes that the Bexar County District Attorney's Office was reviewing the shooting.
What the suit argues
The lawsuit counters that the officers' late-night approach in an unmarked van, combined with what it describes as a failure to clearly identify themselves as police, meant "a reasonable person in Mr. Mireles's position could have believed he was about to be robbed or attacked," according to the San Antonio Express-News. The complaint asks the court to hold the officers personally liable and seeks compensation for the family's loss, mental anguish and funeral expenses. The case is expected to put the bodycam footage and the department's covert-unit tactics under a microscope during pretrial discovery.
Legal context and next steps
Federal civil-rights suits over police shootings often run into procedural defenses such as qualified immunity, a legal shield that has led judges to dismiss similar lawsuits in San Antonio and across Texas, Texas Public Radio reports. The Bexar County District Attorney's review of the March 2024 shooting will move forward on a separate track from the federal civil case, while filings in the Western District of Texas will set the schedule for answers and motions.
For now, the complaint is pending in federal court, and the defendants will have an opportunity in the coming weeks to answer the allegations or ask a judge to throw the case out. The public will have to watch the Western District docket to see what comes next and whether the lawsuit clears its first legal hurdles.
