Eight years after a shoplifting call at a north Dallas Home Depot turned deadly, the Dallas Police Department is still making sure Officer Rogelio Santander Jr. is not forgotten.
Today, the department posted a public remembrance marking his End of Watch date of April 25, 2018. Santander, badge No. 10934, was 27 when he died after being shot while helping detain a suspected shoplifter at the store. This killing shook the department and sparked a years-long legal battle over the retailer’s security practices.
What happened at the Home Depot
According to reporting from the Associated Press via CBS News, an off-duty officer and a Home Depot loss-prevention worker had detained Armando Luis Juarez on suspicion of shoplifting before on-duty officers arrived.
Body-camera footage and the arrest affidavit show Juarez pulled out a handgun inside a loss-prevention office and opened fire, wounding Santander, his partner Officer Crystal Almeida, and the loss-prevention employee. Santander died from his injuries the next morning.
Prosecution and sentence
Prosecutors charged Juarez with capital murder, and in January 2021, he pleaded guilty and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole after mental-health findings made a death sentence ineligible, as reported by The Dallas Morning News…