Daily Campus
Originally Posted: March 31, 2015
By Megan Sunderland
In 1973, the Senate’s hearings on Watergate began, the Supreme Court decided on Roe v. Wade, and “Schoolhouse Rock!” premiered on ABC. 1973 was also the year that 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez was fatally shot by a police officer in Dallas, an incident that is largely unknown to the citizens of the United States, even those of the city, today.
Dr. Rick Halperin, a professor and the director of the Embrey Human Rights Program at SMU, was working on his master’s degree at the university when the incident occurred on July 24, 1973.
“I was shocked at the killing of that young boy. I was certainly not shocked that the riot happened four days later, but the killing was just beyond egregious,” said Halperin.
On that morning in 1973, Rodriguez and his 13-year-old brother, David, were dragged from their home by police, handcuffed, and forced into a police car to be questioned about stealing $8 from a soda vending machine. At one point, Police Officer Darrell L. Cain placed his gun to Rodriguez’s head to coax the boy into giving information. He fired the gun once without discharging a bullet, but his second pull of the trigger released the bullet that killed Rodriguez. Through fingerprint evidence, the boys maintained their innocence. READ MORE