Agent killed Mexican with "dum-dum" bullet
Wed Jan 4, 2006 7:52 PM ET
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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The U.S. Border Patrol used a "dum-dum" bullet, banned in international war but standard issue for border agents, to kill an 18-year-old undocumented Mexican immigrant whose death last week angered Mexico.

The hollow-point bullets, designed to expand on impact, cause much more tissue damage and bleeding than standard rounds.

A Border Patrol spokesman said on Wednesday the bullet fired into Guillermo Martinez after he crossed the U.S. border near San Diego on Friday was a .40-caliber hollow-point round.

The ammunition is banned in international warfare under a century-old treaty but is standard issue for the Border Patrol and some U.S. police departments.

"The agent in question was carrying a .40-caliber Beretta ... a .40-caliber round," Nicholas Coates, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's San Diego sector, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Coates said the bullet fired was hollow-tipped and that "all Border Patrol agents carry hollow-tipped rounds."

The ammunition is banned under the 1899 Hague Convention, which prohibits use in warfare of expanding or fragmenting bullets, generally referred to as "dum-dum" rounds after an Indian arsenal where they were introduced in the 19th century.

Mexican rights groups and witnesses said Martinez, who had crossed into the United States with three other men including his brother, was shot in the chest.

He managed to walk back over the border to Mexico and was treated at Tijuana's Red Cross hospital. Surgeons operated on him twice, but he died the next day.

Mexico this week called for a formal investigation into the shooting, which came weeks after a U.S. lawmaker proposed a plan to fortify part of the U.S.-Mexico border with a high-tech wall to stop illegal immigrants.

The Border Patrol said the agent shot Martinez after the Mexican had twice hurled rocks at him. The unnamed agent has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Each year, an unknown number of Mexicans attempt to cross the deserts and rivers marking the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border in search of work in the United States.

The Border Patrol arrested almost 1.2 million undocumented immigrants making the journey last year. At least 464 died en route, many from heat exposure.

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