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Border agent shoots man

By Pauline Repard and Mark Arner
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
October 27, 2005

ENGINEER SPRINGS – Sheriff's detectives were investigating a reported accidental shooting of an unidentified prisoner by a Border Patrol agent yesterday morning.

The shooting occurred at 8:10 a.m. on Marron Valley Road near state Route 94, roughly five miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border and about 10 miles east of Chula Vista, said sheriff's homicide Sgt. Gary Haigh.

He said the Sheriff's Department was notified of the shooting at 9:30 a.m. The sheriff's homicide squad investigates officer-involved shootings in unincorporated county areas.

Statements from Border Patrol agents and evidence at the scene indicated that agents on foot patrol began chasing a group of suspected illegal border-crossers, Haigh said.

One agent drew his service pistol while running through steep, rough terrain and the gun went off accidentally, Haigh said. The man being chased by the agent suffered a minor injury to his face. He was taken to a hospital, treated, then released to the Border Patrol.

Haigh said "a fragment" struck the man, but he did not explain how the bullet may have fragmented. Sheriff's Lt. Lee Yoder said the prisoner was hit by a bullet after it ricocheted off another object.

Border agents arrested the wounded man, 37, on suspicion of entering the United States illegally. Sheriff's officials withheld his name at the request of the Border Patrol.

Border Patrol officials did not comment on the shooting.

Sheriff's personnel publicly reported the shooting nearly seven hours after it happened, and offered no explanation for that delay yesterday.