from: http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_15265670

Juarez teen had history of smuggling
By Daniel Borunda and Maggie Ybarra El Paso Times

"EL PASO - A Juárez teenager shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent had a history of smuggling immigrants across the border, federal law enforcement officials said.

The uproar over the death of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, 15, intensified on Wednesday with protests, vigils and an eyewitness video showing the deadly confrontation on the Rio Grande.

Hernandez was shot by an agent who was allegedly being attacked with rocks while trying to make an arrest near the Paso del Norte Bridge.

In Juarez, family and friends of Hernandez grieved at his casket during a memorial inside the family's small home. The boy's father had described him as a student, not a troublemaker.

But U.S. federal law enforcement officials said Hernandez was
among youthful guides who help "coyotes," or smugglers, sneak undocumented immigrants across the border.
Federal law enforcement officials said Hernandez was a known juvenille smuggler listed on records from the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which includes photos and fingerprints. Officials spoke on condition of anonimity because juvenile records are private.

Officials said Hernandez was on the El Paso juvenille smugglers most wanted list at the time of his death and that the teen's most recent charge of smuggling undocumented immigrants into the U.S. was in 2009.

Border Patrol agents have said that juveniles often serve as illegal crossing guides because they can avoid full prosecution.

Mexican officials could not confirm whether Hernandez had previously committed a crime.

Arturo Sandoval, spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office, said Hernandez's criminal history is also being investigated. Officials said that a person younger than 14 cannot be arrested in Mexico

A cell phone video filmed during the fatal shooting was aired Wednesday evening on news programs on the Spanish-language Univision television network.

The grainy video shows about four men crossing the almost dry riverbed toward a fence on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. The men then run back toward Mexico when a Border Patrol agent arrives on a bicycle and stops one man at gunpoint on the U.S. side of the concrete riverbank.

While the agent has the man on the ground, it appears at least one man with a white shirt makes a throwing motion. The video does not show what the other men are doing. The agent points his gun toward Mexico before several gunshots are heard. A body can then be seen lying on the ground under the railroad Black Bridge.

"Estan tirando piedras. Le dio, el estipido, le dio," a person says on the video. Translated, "They are throwing rocks. He hit him, that stupid one, hit him."

The video also showed the arrival of Mexican police with guns drawn before insults can be heard being yelled.

An FBI spokeswoman told the Associated Press said that Mexican soldiers pointed their rifles and chased away U.S. Border Patrol agents after the shooting.

Three Juarez bridge vendors interviewed Wednesday said they saw the Border Patrol agent shoot Hernandez and disputed claims that the teenager threatened the agent.

"The kid wasn't throwing rocks," Estelle Gonzalez said. "He was only watching."

Gonzalez sells hats on the Paso del Norte Bridge and she and some other vendors witnessed Monday's confrontation from there.

Edgar Martinez, 32, and Luis Rodriguez Rosales, 27, also said Hernandez wasn't throwing anything.

"He was shooting like crazy," Gonzalez said of the agent, adding that he fired three shots.

The Border Patrol hasn't identified the agent.

After the shooting, other Border Patrol agents hustled the bicycle agent away and picked up shell casings shortly after the shooting, the witnesses said.

Chihuahua state police confirmed Hernandez cause of death was a gunshot wound in the head. The medical examiner found a bullet inside Hernandez's head. Officials are investigating the shooting as a homicide.

The two men detained by the Border Patrol during the shooting incident were identified by FBI officials as Oscar Ivan Pineda Ayala, 29, and Agustin Alcaraz Reyes, 47, both of Mexico.

"They're probably going to be material witnesses for the investigation," Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said.

Alcaraz and Pineda are being held without bond at the federal detention facility in East El Paso.

According to jail records, Pineda faces a charge of illegal entry, and Alcaraz faces charges of illegal entry and re-entering into the United States after being deported.

Mexican government officials from Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz to the President Felipe Calder-n have condemned the shooting.

"Justicia, justicia," chanted a group of about 70 protestors in El Paso at the foot of the Paso del Norte Bridge asking for "justice" during an afternoon sun and 100 degree heat. Protesters felt the shooting was excessive force.

A Border Patrol helicopter circled overhead during the protest organized by the Border Network for Human Rights.

Wednesday night, more than 100 people attended a vigil in the Chihuahuita neighborhood in El Paso near the scene of the shooting.

"It's more than a protest. It's a way of saying we care for human life," Triya Rabindran, 39,of El Paso said while holding a lighted candle. "It is important to me because I believe in nonviolence I belive every life is special."

Andy Ramirez, national president of the Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council, said the agent was defending himself and the teen's death was being exploited by Mexican politicians.

"It's clear that Mexico was engaging in a propaganda campaign to paint the footguide as a good, clean student who was gunned down in cold blood," Ramirez said. "Calderon knew this, but sought "justice" in the form of yet another scalp, which could still yet happen.""