Police officer who was fired for feeding a “feces sandwich” to a homeless man — now promoted to Chief of Police.

BENAVIDES, Texas — A former San Antonio police officer who was fired after two high-profile misconduct cases involving feces has been promoted to chief of police in the small South Texas town of Benavides.

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Matthew Luckhurst began serving as Benavides police chief on June 1, 2026, according to records from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and city documents. The Benavides City Council approved the appointment on April 30. Luckhurst, who had worked as one of the department’s two officers since April 2023, is paid $28 an hour in the role.

Luckhurst’s career first drew widespread attention in 2016, when he was a five-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department assigned to downtown bike patrol. Department records and colleagues alleged that he picked up dog feces, placed it between slices of bread, put the sandwich in a Styrofoam container, and left it next to a sleeping homeless man. He reportedly bragged about the act to another officer. The homeless man did not eat the sandwich.

A second incident followed weeks later at the bike patrol substation. After a female officer requested that the women’s restroom be kept clean, Luckhurst was accused of defecating in the toilet without flushing and smearing a brown substance described as having the consistency of tapioca on the seat and wall.

SAPD fired Luckhurst in 2016. An arbitrator reinstated him in 2019 with back pay, ruling that the department had missed a 180-day deadline to discipline him for the sandwich incident. A separate arbitrator upheld his termination in 2020 for the restroom case. Then-SAPD Chief William McManus called the conduct “probably one of the most disgusting, vile, repulsive things that anybody has ever done.”

After leaving San Antonio, Luckhurst briefly worked as a reserve officer in Floresville in 2022 but was released after public backlash. Benavides hired him in 2023 following a background check. Then-Chief Andre Hines and department statements later described Luckhurst’s record with the department as exemplary, with no complaints, and framed the hire and promotion as consistent with offering qualified officers a second chance. Luckhurst also obtained a school-based law enforcement license in 2024.\

Luckhurst has maintained that he intended for the homeless man to discard the sandwich rather than eat it. Benavides officials, including city leaders, stood by the promotion when it drew renewed media coverage in June 2026. The town has a population of roughly 1,100 and is located about 150 miles south of San Antonio in Duval County.

The case has been cited by observers as an example of limited barriers in Texas that can allow officers with prior disciplinary records to move between departments and advance to leadership roles. No public updates have indicated any change in Luckhurst’s status as chief since the June promotion.