A police spokesman later said, “Here in Texas, if you’re in fear of loss of life, loss of property, you have a right to defend yourself.”
“Andrew was who he was,” Ruiz told KSAT before clarifying that she wasn’t “making excuses” for his behavior. “Did my son deserve to be punished? Yes, he did.”
Cynthia Ruiz admitted that she suspected her son was involved in nefarious acts when he started bringing home money, despite being unemployed. Still, instead of digging into his suspicious behavior, she encouraged him to use the ill-gotten gains on renting a house.
“If you have money from whatever you’re doing, you can take that money and find a place to live,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz said her son had told her, “What is life? Being on medicine all the time and I’m sleeping? I’m missing life.”
