A disgraced former San Antonio police officer, who was fired twice over an incident involving giving a homeless man a sandwich filled with dog excrement, is now the chief of police in Benavidez, Texas. This promotion comes three years after he joined the Benavidez police department despite his controversial background.
Matthew Luckhurst officially took on the role of chief on June 1, following a vote by City Council members on April 30. Records indicate that Benavidez, a small town located about 240 miles south of San Antonio, has a population of around 1,100 people, and he earns $28 an hour in this position.
City officials have not responded to inquiries about Luckhurst’s hiring.
Luckhurst’s past includes the 2016 incident where, according to a fellow officer, he placed feces in a Styrofoam container of bread and handed it to a homeless man who was asleep. Luckhurst has always insisted that he intended for the man to dispose of the sandwich rather than eat it.
That same year, he faced accusations of defecating in a women’s restroom at the San Antonio Police Department and smearing a “brown substance” on the toilet seat, something he reportedly did not deny.
After appealing his dismissal in 2019, he briefly returned to the force before a judge upheld his firing in 2020. By February 2022, he had found a position in Floresville but was let go again after his troubling past came back into focus.
He was hired in 2023 by the then-police chief of Benavidez, who noted that this decision reflected a commitment to integrity and accountability within the department.
