LAKE JACKSON, Texas \u2013 Surveillance video obtained exclusively by KPRC 2 News shows what happened moments before a Brazoria County sheriff\u2019s deputy shot and killed an 18-year-old Texas State University student just after midnight Monday.<\/p>\n
The teen, identified as John Mendoza Jr., had just pulled into his father\u2019s driveway when the shooting happened. Within eight seconds of arriving home, after the deputy\u2019s sirens stopped, a shot can be heard on the video.<\/p>\n
What the video shows<\/p>\n
The footage, shared exclusively with KPRC 2\u2019s Bryce Newberry by family attorney Charles Adams, captures sirens and gunfire \u2014 but no audible commands from the deputy appear to be heard before the shot was fired.<\/p>\n
More than 30 seconds after the shooting, audio from the video appears to capture the deputy calling it an accidental discharge over the scanner. About 10 minutes after the deputy opened fire, time stamps on the video show the first ambulance arriving on scene.<\/p>\n
Mendoza Jr. was taken to a hospital, where he later died. He had just finished his freshman year at Texas State University.<\/p>\n
Family says son was unarmed, coming home from a park<\/p>\n
According to the family, Mendoza Jr. had been spending time at a park with childhood friends before the shooting. A deputy began watching the group, the family said, and the friends grew uncomfortable and drove home \u2014 but the deputy followed, leading to the attempted traffic stop.<\/p>\n
Family attorney Charles Adams says all of the people in the car were unarmed.<\/p>\n
Mendoza Jr.\u2019s father, John Mendoza Sr., is demanding accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a senseless situation that could have been avoided,\u201d Mendoza Sr. said. \u201cMy son was murdered in his garage and this just isn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigation underway; key questions unanswered<\/p>\n
The Brazoria County Sheriff\u2019s Office has not released the name of the deputy involved, how long the deputy has been with the department, or the reason for the attempted traffic stop. The deputy is currently on administrative leave.<\/p>\n
The Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKE JACKSON, Texas \u2013 Surveillance video obtained exclusively by KPRC 2 News shows what happened moments before a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13358,59804,114824,114584,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-320292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-brazoria-county","tag-deputy-involved-shooting","tag-john-mendoza-jr","tag-lake-jackson","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}