Cell phone video shows border shooting scene (CNN)

[Hazcat]

Video at link

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/10/texas.border.patrol.shooting/index.html


(CNN)  -- A video obtained by CNN raises questions about a U.S. Border Patrol agent's claim that he fatally shot a 14-year-old boy in Ciudad Juarez while he was surrounded by rock-throwing suspected illegal immigrants.

CNN obtained the video, which was shot by a witness on a cell phone camera from the Mexican side of the border, from affiliate Univision. The video aired on its program Primer Impacto late Wednesday.

The video shows part of the build-up before the incident, with several individuals running underneath the Puente Negro, a railroad span that connects the two countries.

Monday night's incident started around 6:30 p.m. when Customs and Border Protection agents responded to a report of a group of suspected illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States near the Paso del Norte port of entry, FBI special agent Andrea Simmons said.

In the distance, a U.S. border patrol officer on his bicycle can be seen making his way toward the area. Seconds later, the officer can be seen getting off his bicycle and approaching two of the four suspected Mexican nationals who had just crossed through an opening in the fence. One of the suspects is detained by the officer, but never handcuffed, and instead dragged a short distance. This happened on the U.S. side of the border.
Video: Outrage over border patrol shooting
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    * Border Control and Customs
    * Mexico

Moments later, the officer points, what appears to be his firearm in the direction of a second suspect, standing about 60 feet away from the officer -- on the Mexican side of the border. The video shows the suspect running away.

Seconds later, two gunshots can be heard on the video. A third gunshot is heard in a different sequence of the tape. After the shooting, another suspect is seen running in the upper left hand side of screen away from the incident.

"They're throwing rocks," witnesses screaming in Spanish can be heard in the background of the video as the officer opens fire. "They hit him ... they hit him."

The video contradicts Simmons' account who said: "This agent, who had the second subject detained on the ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat. However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one subject who later died."

The victim, 14-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, was a secondary student in Juarez.

"The young man was not armed," said Sergio Belmonte, Ciudad Juarez spokesman. "He did not have the physical size to threaten anyone. The aggression (by the U.S. agent) is evident." Belmonte said Hernandez was shot in the head.

"My people have spoken to his family. His dad says he was a straight-A student. His secondary school even sent him on an academic trip because of his good grades," Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said.

A memorial for Guereca will be held in Juarez Thursday morning, according to Reyes. Local politicians are expected to attend.

Reports that the Mexican military may have drawn weapons on U.S. border patrol, which surfaced earlier Wednesday, could not be immediately confirmed. The tape released by Univision did not show any Mexican military troops.

"We are aware of those reports, but I cannot confirm them to you at this time," said Mexican military spokesman Enrique Torres. "I plan on speaking with the individuals who are said to have been involved, but I can't and won't confirm that to you. I cannot speculate."

The Mexican government has requested a quick and transparent investigation into the fatal shooting.

Mexico "reiterates that the use of firearms to repel a rock attack represents a disproportionate use of force, particularly coming from authorities who receive specialized training on the matter," the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a news release.

Simmons told CNN earlier that she did not know whether the person who was shot was on the Mexican or U.S. side of the border, but that the agent never left U.S. territory.

The body was found on the Mexican side of the border, Simmons said.

Peaceful protests against the U.S. border patrol were held in Juarez on Wednesday, near the site of the fatal shooting.

In video shot by CNN affiliate KVIA, a man holding a bullhorn is seen pacing back and forth on the dusty streets of Juarez, pleading "Justice for Hernandez" to any passerby who would listen.

The shooting comes less than two weeks after the May 31 death of a Mexican illegal immigrant who had been detained three days earlier by border agents in California.

A suspect identified as Oscar Ivan Pineda Ayala was initially detained on the Rio Grande levee, said the FBI, which is leading the investigation.

"The growing frequency of this type of event reflects a worrisome increment in the use of excessive force on the part of some border authorities," the Mexican foreign ministry said.

According to the ministry, the number of Mexicans who have been killed or wounded by U.S. border authorities has increased from five in 2008 to 12 in 2009 and 17 so far this year.

Mark Qualia, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he could not comment because he does not know where the Mexican government obtained its statistics.

But Qualia said there were 799 assaults on border agents from October 1, 2009, through May 31 -- up from 745 assaults for the same time period in 2007-08 and 658 for the same span in 2008-09.

Lethal force, he said, is allowed "when an agent is in imminent threat of physical or bodily harm, which could cause death or injury or in protection of an innocent third party."

The determination of when to use lethal force, Qualia said, is made by each individual agent at the scene.

From October 1 through May 31, he said, Custom and Border Protection agents have used their firearms 31 times.

Rock-throwing can be considered a dangerous assault, Qualia said: "They're not chunking pebbles."

[TAB]

Mexico "reiterates that the use of firearms to repel a rock attack represents a disproportionate use of force, particularly coming from authorities who receive specialized training on the matter," the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a news release.

i disagree.  A rock is a deadly weapon, deadly force is a option.  maybe not the best option, but it is a option.

[fightingquaker13]

i disagree.  A rock is a deadly weapon, deadly force is a option.  maybe not the best option, but it is a option.

Don't bring a rock to gunfight?
Alternatively "Stay in your own country and this won't hapen to you".
FQ13 who feels bad that a promising young man died. Still, and to quote, "If he had but stayed at home, none of this would have come to pass". Hard words, but true ones. (The quote is from "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier). I don't feel nearly as bad about this as the Mexican Government and pro-illegal activists say I should. Maybe I'm coldhearted. Maybe I just think that they know where the border is and they cross it illegally at their own risk. That's leaving aside the dubious wisdom of throwing rocks at folks armed with semi-automatic handguns. I mean, what did you think was going to happen? But hey, I must just be an Anglo racist right? I'm sorry if I offend, but I am sick of this crap. Good for the Border Patrol, and I don't care if the kid was shot twice in the back. If he was north of the border, it was justified. But thats just the HO of a racist. YMMV.

[Pathfinder]

Interesting video, key moment of the gunshot is a garbage picture while the rest was reasonably clear.

Rocks are lethal weapons. as others have noted elsewhere, people used to be stoned to death.

The Mexicans in the article left out the part that the student - in addition to being a A student and a wonderful child - was also a choir boy and alter boy, and helped little old ladies across the street while giving all of his allowance to orphans.

Jeesh, he was trying to enter this country illegally - actually had entered this country illegally if the middle of that span is the actual border - and was chucking rocks at the sole agent. FTA - 800 attacks on agents and only 30 shootings by Border Patrol? That is huge restraint IMHO.

[crusader rabbit]

Rocks are lethal weapons. as others have noted elsewhere, people used to be stoned to death.

Stoning is still an accepted form of capital punishment throughout the mohammadanist world.  Mexico is a "growth area" for practitioners of that faith (No FQ, I am not suggesting that this kid was a mohammadanist, so don't get yer shorts in a knot). 

But, if we started shooting illegals as they attempt to cross the border, the problem would quickly stop.

This is an invasion.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I'm sorry for the young Mexican kid.  I have no problem with Mexicans if they are here legally.  I have no use for them if they are not.

Offered as thoughtful insight by Crusader who is unwilling to lose his country without a fight!

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