Texas Authorities Investigate After Concerned Residents Report Injured and Handcuffed Boy Walking Shoeless

Authorities in Texas are investigating after a boy covered in cuts and bruises was seen walking shoeless in the street with his hands cuffed.

Worried residents called police after they spotted the child wandering around the Caracol Creek neighborhood of San Antonio this week, according to Fox San Antonio.

A video provided to the station shows the boy walking down the street wearing a dark T-shirt and shorts. He isn't wearing any shoes, but appears to have socks on his feet.

One woman, who wanted to be identified only as Mary, said she almost ran over the boy, whose age she estimated to be 14. "He picked up his hands, kind of told me 'sorry' and I noticed a little something a little bit odd about him," she told the station.

"He started running and that's when I saw something shiny on his hands and I figured they were handcuffs."

Residents provided a clip of the boy walking down the street to the station and said he looked injured. Mary said he had what appeared to be belt marks on his legs and his face "was pretty beat up."

Another neighbor told the station that the boy didn't run when deputies from the Bexar County Sheriff's Office arrived on the scene.

Thomas Jimenez, who lives in Caracol Creek, told Fox San Antonio that paramedics arrived shortly after the deputies spoke with the boy.

"I'd seen the police and then I asked my neighbor over here if they knew what was going on and they said that they'd seen a kid on the ground with the police around them," Jimenez told the station.

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office confirmed to the station that the incident is being investigated by the department's Criminal Investigations Division, but didn't provide any further details.

The sheriff's office and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) have been contacted for comment.

According to the DFPS, almost 250,000 cases of child abuse and neglect were assigned for investigation by the department in the 2018 fiscal year.

The number of children living in Texas that year was 7,583,816, according to the department.

The DFPS urges people to report suspicions of abuse, neglect or exploitation of children, adults with disabilities or people aged 65 and over by calling 1-800-252-5400 or on the Texas Abuse Hotline website.