Thread: Documents Offer Details on Fatal Border Shooting

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...m23border.html



Documents offer details on fatal shooting at border

By Greg Moran
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 23, 2006

Federal prosecutors charged a passenger in an SUV that was involved in a fatal shooting at the border last week with smuggling immigrants. They also released documents that offered more insight into the violent encounter.

José Adolfo Gonzalez Fabian was charged yesterday in federal court with transporting illegal immigrants. He did not enter a plea, and a magistrate set bond at $75,000.

He is next scheduled to appear in court June 6.

Gonzalez was the passenger in a Dodge Durango that picked up four illegal immigrants in Otay Mesa, about two miles from the border crossing, and then tried to evade federal officers, according to a Border Patrol agent's statement.

The driver, Oscar Abraham Garcia Barrios, was shot to death when he tried to flee to Mexico at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The court records identify the driver as Oscar Gamiz-Bargas.

Gonzalez said in a statement that is part of the court documents released yesterday that the driver had his hands up as officers approached the Durango at the port of entry.

Police said the federal officers opened fire when the driver refused to obey commands and accelerated toward them.

The shooting shut down the border crossing, the busiest in the country, for nearly nine hours and stranded motorists in an epic gridlock on Interstates 5 and 805.

According to Gonzalez's statement, he and the driver went to pick up a small group of illegal immigrants on Otay Mesa.

But U.S. law enforcement officials had been tipped off and followed the SUV. The Dodge ended up heading south on I-5 but ran into traffic at the border.

The driver tried to go to the right side of the freeway and force his way through traffic. Gonzalez said officers appeared in front, and the car stopped.

Gonzalez said that when officers approached the car, “Oscar had his hands up.” Officers smashed a window of the SUV.

At that point, Gonzalez said he turned his head to the passenger-side window. Then, he said, he felt the car move forward.

He said he turned back and in Spanish yelled to the driver to “stop it.” Then he heard gunshots and saw the driver bleeding from the mouth.

The documents also contain a statement from a juvenile who was a passenger in the car. The youth said that when the car stopped at the border crossing it was Gonzalez who urged the driver, “Go, go go.”

He told authorities he saw the driver “placing the vehicle into gear by shifting the lever in a downward motion.”

He then heard a shot and saw the driver bleeding.



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Greg Moran: (619) 542-4586; greg.moran@uniontrib.com

http://nctimes.com/articles/2006/05/...1206193024.txt

Documents: Confusion inside vehicle before Border Patrol shooting

By: Associated Press Wire Reports -

SAN DIEGO -- Court documents released Monday gave a picture of the confusion inside a a vehicle carrying illegal immigrants moments before the driver was shot dead by a U.S. Border Patrol agent last week.

The documents were in a complaint filed against Jose Adolfo Gonzalez Fabian, who appeared in federal court on charges of transportation of illegal aliens.

Gonzalez was seated next to the driver when federal agents surrounded the vehicle May 18, a short distance from a busy border crossing linking San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. The crossing was shut for nine hours following the shooting, which is under investigation by Mexican and U.S. authorities.


Agents smashed the black Dodge Durango's window with a baton and then opened fire when the driver accelerated in their direction, Border Patrol Agent Pedro Alonso Jr. said in the complaint. No weapons were found in the vehicle, San Diego police Lt. Kevin Rooney has said.

Inside the Durango, Gonzalez said that when agents smashed the vehicle window, the driver had his hands up. Gonzalez then turned to look out the passenger side window and felt the vehicle move forward.

He turned back to the driver and told him to stop the vehicle. Then, he heard gunshots and saw the driver had a bullet wound in his neck and was bleeding from his mouth, according to court documents.

A juvenile illegal immigrant in the rear of the vehicle said that after the vehicle stopped at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, he heard the passenger tell the driver "Go, go, go!" according to the complaint. The juvenile saw the driver shift the vehicle into gear. Then he heard a shot, and saw the driver bleeding from an ear.

The driver, identified by the San Diego County Medical Examiner as Oscar Abraham Garcia Barrios, was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot to the head. In court documents, the driver is identified as Oscar Gamiz Bargas.

Gonzalez did not enter a plea at Monday's hearing. A federal magistrate ordered him held on $75,000 bond.

Gonzalez told investigators that he and the driver traveled in a Dodge Durango to pick up four illegal immigrants from a hiding spot on the U.S. side of San Diego's Otay Mesa Port of Entry.

Their intention was to smuggle the immigrants to various parts of California, but the plan changed when they realized they were being tailed by Border Patrol agents. Federal agents began following the vehicle after somebody reported seeing it pick up suspected illegal immigrants north of the Otay Mesa crossing.

The men headed south, cutting through traffic trying to make it back to Mexico through the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world's busiest border crossing.

Gonzalez said the driver was talking to someone on a cell phone, who answered to "partner" and was telling the driver where to go. Gonzalez then told the driver to stop and said they would make a run for it. The man on the cell phone, however, told them "Step on it! Step on it!" according to the complaint.

"They arrived at the (San Ysidro) Port of Entry and tried to go around traffic, pulling over to one side, and then trying to force their way in between cars," Gonzalez told authorities, according to the complaint. "There were officers in front of them, blocking the way."

Two of the passengers in the vehicle were identified as Ricardo Ramos Gonzalez and Juan Carlos Valle Hernandez. The other two are juveniles who were not identified. The passengers told officials that they were going to pay from $1,000 to $2,300 to be smuggled to various parts of California.