Marquise Jones

Marquise Jones, 23, was shot in the back and killed by off-duty San Antonio Police Officer Robert Encina on February 28, 2014, in the parking lot of a Chacho's restaurant after the car Jones was riding in rear-ended another vehicle in the drive-thru line. Encina, working private security at the restaurant, approached the car; Jones ran, and Encina fired several shots from roughly 100 feet away, killing him as he fled. Encina said Jones had pointed a gun at him; some witnesses supported that account, while others testified they never saw a weapon, and Jones's family maintained he was unarmed. A Bexar County grand jury declined to indict Encina in 2015. A federal civil jury ruled against the family in 2017, finding Encina did not use excessive force. In 2021, after a fresh review by new prosecutors, the Bexar County District Attorney's Office declined to present the case to a second grand jury, citing conflicting evidence about whether Jones had a gun. No one has ever been charged in Jones's death.

San Antonio, TX · Bexar County

• 2014: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The fender-bender, the pursuit, and the shooting, per the Bexar County District Attorney's Office's 2021 closing memorandum and trial testimony from the 2017 federal civil case.
• Encina, working a paid off-duty security shift at Chacho's & Chalucci's restaurant, approached a car after it rear-ended another vehicle in the drive-thru line; Jones, a passenger, ran from the car and Encina fired multiple shots at him from approximately 100 feet away as he fled.
• Jones was struck in the back and died at the scene; Encina said Jones had turned and pointed a gun at him before he fired, and he was not wearing a body camera at the time.
• Witness testimony conflicted directly: some witnesses in the drive-thru line said they saw Jones with a gun that night, while others testified they never saw one; Jones's family maintained throughout that he was unarmed.
• A Bexar County grand jury, under then-District Attorney Nico LaHood, declined to indict Encina in 2015 following an internal San Antonio Police Department investigation that found the shooting justified.
• Jones's family filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit in 2017 against Encina and the City of San Antonio; after a week of testimony, a jury deliberated three hours before ruling Encina had not used excessive or deadly force in violation of Jones's constitutional rights, clearing both the officer and the city of liability. A judge later denied the family's request for a new trial.
• In 2021, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales assigned two prosecutors who had not previously worked on the case to conduct an independent review; the office ultimately declined to present the case to a second grand jury, writing that it could not disprove Encina's self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt given the conflicting evidence about whether Jones had a gun.
• Encina remained an officer with the San Antonio Police Department following the shooting and the civil verdict.

• Whether Jones was armed and pointed a weapon at Encina, as the officer and some witnesses stated, or was unarmed and shot while fleeing, as his family and other witnesses maintained, was never resolved with certainty across three separate reviews — a grand jury, a civil jury, and a subsequent prosecutorial review — each of which cited the same underlying conflict in the evidence.
• Whether the full San Antonio Police Department investigative file was completely turned over to the original 2015 grand jury was directly disputed by the family's civil attorneys, who argued evidence had been withheld, though this was not independently confirmed in the sources reviewed for this summary.
• What specific prior disciplinary history, if any, Officer Encina had before the shooting was referenced by the family's attorney as excluded from what jurors in the civil trial were permitted to consider, but its contents have not been made comprehensively public.

• San Antonio Report — “District attorney closes review of police shooting of Marquise Jones”
• San Antonio Report — “Jury Clears City, SAPD Cop in Marquise Jones Wrongful Death Suit”
• KSAT — “After review, prosecutors decline to reopen case of Black man killed by San Antonio police officer”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs