Mayor Ron Nirenberg on Friday denounced a photograph in which Fire Chief Charles Hood is seen poised to eat sushi displayed on a mostly nude woman at a firefighter's birthday party this year.
"The scene in the photo — and the disrespect of the woman in the photo — betrays the standards and values of the City of San Antonio," Nirenberg said in a statement. "I support the city manager's decision to conduct a thorough, independent review to learn the full set of circumstances and determine the appropriate level of discipline."
While Hood apologized to anyone offended by the incident, he also defended his posing for the photograph.
"It would be like me taking a picture with a flamenco dancer in Vegas or a Spurs dancer at Top Golf where the Spurs dancers happen to be," Hood said.
Top Golf is a popular North Side driving range where patrons can order food and drinks.
Hood added, "I think the majority of people in this community know my character and I'm a man of integrity. And it's just a picture. It was more or less a family event. So it was just completely painted wrong."
Nonetheless, City Manager Erik Walsh called the photograph "a serious issue." On Friday, Walsh directed City Attorney Andy Segovia to conduct a review of the incident.
The woman in the photo was hired for a 50th birthday party for firefighter Shody Henshaw, a 23-year veteran. About 200 guests attended the celebration at Henshaw's home near Canyon Lake.
About 70 of those in attendance were firefighters, some of them high-ranking members of the department, including Chris Steele, president of the fire union, Henshaw said.
"I invited many firemen that I've worked with over the years," Henshaw said. " Chief Steele was there from the union. Battalion chiefs were there. There was quite a few rank there, and then some non-rank were there also."
In copies of two photos obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, Hood can be seen kneeling on the floor next to the woman lying on a table. The front of her body is partly covered in sushi, flowers and leaves. She does not appear to be wearing any clothes underneath the display.
Hood, who was not wearing a uniform, holds a piece of sushi with chopsticks in his right hand. His lips are parted, as if ready to eat it. The woman stares at the ceiling.
"I think I want me some tuna," Hood is heard saying in a live photo, a feature on iPhones.
The use of a nude female as a platter for sushi — called "body sushi" or "naked sushi" — is a Japanese practice called nyotaimori. Its origins are unclear, though some academic studies and news articles trace it to the premodern samurai era. More recently, it has been criticized for objectifying and degrading women. Some places have banned it.
Hood said he attended the party in support of Henshaw, who was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2015.
He described Henshaw as "a massive, muscular, just stud of a firefighter ... a big ol' muscle-bound stud and just amazing dude. We're so thankful that he's still here and he's still battling. He's very heroic in my eyes."
He added, "I never go to firefighters' parties. This dude has stage 4 cancer."
Hood said he did not know in advance that the party would feature a "naked sushi" display.
"You walk in the front door and there's a sushi lady there that I guess is a business, so I stopped and posed and take a picture. That's it," he said. "She was getting paid to be there. ... I took a piece of sushi. I don't think it was straight off of her. That was it."
Henshaw said the woman was hired by a friend who knew that he liked sushi.
"She's actually happily married and it was the friend who was surprising me with the sushi," Henshaw said. "She had wanted to do it and thought it would be a lot of fun. I told her thank you at the end of the party. Her husband was there."
Henshaw described the food display as "very classy." Another woman in a kimono stood nearby serving sushi from a bowl and would not allow anyone to touch the nude female, he said.
"She was totally covered up and at no time was any food eaten off her to expose her," Henshaw said. "It was a beautiful display, and it's what I call food art, and it just had the Japanese take on it. It would be no more than doing a display that went with Chinese food or American food or Greek food, where you added a backdrop around the food about the culture. You match up the display around the culture."
He added, "The only reason Chief Hood bent down in that pose was for a picture. He wasn't eating off her."
Fire Department employees are prohibited from taking part in behavior that would bring discredit upon the department or cast it in a negative public light. In the past, Hood has disciplined firefighters and other employees for bringing reproach upon the department, including six cadets who were dismissed in 2016.
While training at University Hospital that summer, the cadets asked to use the rest of the day to study for their final exam. Instead, they patronized Twin Peaks, a bar and restaurant known for its scantily clad servers, and consumed alcohol.
Cadets "are told to avoid restaurants such as Hooters, Twin Peaks, etc. while attending EMT-Basic training at (UT Health San Antonio)," Hood wrote in a memo that year. "The disregard and violation of the Cadet Code of Honor and the Rules & Regulations is what led to the eventual discipline."
In recent years, Hood has tried to recruit more women to join the Fire Department through an initiative called Hero Like Her. Only 89 of the city's 1,757 firefighters — about 5 percent — are women. The number of female cadet applications has increased in the last five years from 6.8 percent to 11.7 percent, according to information provided by the city.
"I've done more to increase the numbers of women in this fire department than ever before," Hood said.
For all of his justifications on Friday, Hood also sounded a note of contrition.
"I know that picture offended some people," he said. "And for those who it offended, I'm extremely sorry. I didn't go out there to offend anyone. I didn't go out there to objectify women. I went out there to support one of my beloved firefighters who has been struggling with cancer for years."
Staff writer Emilie Eaton contributed to this story.
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