Debate continues on fatal border shooting after rock assault

By Greg Moran
7:33 p.m., July 25, 2011

SAN DIEGO — San Diego police expect to finish their investigation this week into the June 21 fatal shooting by a U.S. Border Patrol agent of a Mexican man who was hurling rocks and nail-studded wood during a confrontation along the international border.

The report will be forwarded to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego, which will review if the shooting was justified and whether the agent who fired the shots that killed 40-year-old Jose Alfredo Yanez Reyes should face charges.

The agent has not been identified and only a broad description of the events surrounding the shooting has been made public. The incident remains controversial with critics of the agency, including the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups along the Southwest border, who have called for congressional hearings on the Border Patrol’s use of firearms to respond to rock throwers.

They say it is a disproportionate use of force. Agent Christopher Harris, who has worked for 14 years out of the Border Patrol’s Imperial Beach station, sees it differently.

“I would suggest they don’t know what they are talking about,â€