(Seguin) — The Seguin City Council on Tuesday heard from family members of a 16-year-old who was involved in a September 2025 traffic stop that has recently gained headlines.
The teenage boy and his friend were both riding an electric bike around 11 p.m. on September 25 of last year. The teen allegedly ran a stop sign and was stopped and questioned by a Seguin police officer. During the stop, the teen called his father but was asked by the officer to put away his phone. The boy hung up the phone, but then his father called back and he answered. That ultimately led to the officer attempting to secure the phone. The teen appeared to turn to hold on to the phone, and he was then taken to the ground by the officer.
The teen’s stepmother, Rebecca Craddock, told the council that she hopes the city will further look into the issue. She says the boy was trying to do what his father had instructed him to do if he was ever stopped.
“He tried to call his father because he’s always been told, hey, call dad if you have any encounters. You need a parent, because he’s 16. So, he tried to do that. Officer Godinez told him, put his phone away. He put his phone away. His dad called him back. So, he complied with the officer as well as his father that night. However, in complying with his father’s wishes, he was body slammed to the ground, given a concussion, and given bodily injuries, as well as his civil rights were violated,” said Craddock.
The teen’s grandmother, Cindy Savini, identified herself as a former peace officer from Comal County who lives in Seguin. She said it’s hard to watch the video and think that nothing wrong was done. She was critical of the officer’s actions and of those within the police department who claim that the takedown was necessary.
“You have a lot of kids in this town. There’s good kids, there’s bad kids. But you have a lot of them that are petrified and scared of the police. That is why. You don’t handle kids that way. I don’t know why he kept escalating it. I feel like he thinks that he has a badge and a gun and he’s God,” said Savini.
Seguin Police Chief Jason Brady has repeatedly said that the officer followed policy and that the boy was not slammed to the ground but instead was taken down using an arm-bar takedown.
Even though the incident occurred months ago, the video was just recently shared online, which has led to new scrutiny of the situation.
The comments made by the family and others were delivered during the Citizens to Be Heard portion of the meeting. Council members are not able to have discussions during that time because the item was not on the agenda. If the council does decide to discuss the issue in the future, it’s likely that those discussions would take place in closed sessions because this is a personnel matter.
A video released of the incident can be found on our website, seguintoday.com.
