‘Justicia para Santos’: WFAA special program marks 50 years since the death of Santos Rodriguez

WFAA is marking the 50th anniversary of Santos’ death with a special 30-minute program Monday at 7 p.m.

On July 23, 2023

Fifty years ago Monday, a Dallas police officer handcuffed 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez and his brother, David, and placed them in a patrol car.

The officer, Darrell Cain, was questioning the brothers about a petty theft at a gas station in Dallas’ Little Mexico neighborhood. As he interrogated Santos and David, Cain held his gun to Santos’ head and played a game of Russian roulette. But when he pulled the trigger, the gun went off and killed Santos.

Santos’ death on July 24, 1973, sparked outrage in Dallas’ Latino community, but it took decades for the Dallas Police Department to apologize, and Cain never did.

He received a sentence of five years for murder, and served around half of that time.

Now, WFAA is marking the 50th year since Santos’ death with “Justicia Para Santos: A La Vida Special,” a special 30-minute program, which you can watch in the video player above and also on WFAA on Monday at 7 p.m.

The special will highlight how the case happened; the initial protests, backlash and reaction; the ways in which Santos’ death was felt as far away as Seattle; and how the tragedy has stuck with the community all these years later.

The special is hosted by WFAA anchor Cynthia Izaguirre, with stories from Rebecca Lopez, Jobin Panicker and Adriana De Alba. It also includes the reading of a special poem for Rodriguez from Joaquín Zihuatanejo, the Dallas poet laureate. 

WFAA will also host a documentary, “Santos Vive,” on the WFAA+ streaming app, beginning Monday through Aug. 31.

“Santos Vive,” which initially premiered in 2018, will also be aired on Public Broadcasting Stations (PBS) across Texas, including KERA-TV in Dallas on Monday. Later this year, all 10 PBS stations in Texas will air the documentary during Hispanic Heritage Month in September.

“For all of us who have worked so diligently to bring this tragic story to light after almost 50 years in the darkness, we are extremely honored to know that Santos’ story will be available to every single person in Texas, a state that is 40% Latino,” Byron C. Hunter, writer and producer of “Santos Vive,” said in a press release.  “We urge everyone to watch this film, regardless of race, and truly get to know Santos’ story.”  

This piece was republished from ABC WFAA News.