Thread: Man killed near border called 'smuggler'

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexi ... shoot.html
also via www.worldnetdaily.com

Man killed near border called 'smuggler'

Shooting intensifies immigration debate
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

January 5, 2006

A Mexican man shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent has been identified as a people smuggler, adding a new dimension to the heated debate over last week's incident.

The Associated Press quoted a Border Patrol spokesman, Raul Martinez, who is based in the San Diego office, as saying the victim – Guillermo MartÃÂ*nez – was "a known people smuggler who had been detained 11 times prior."

However, shortly afterward, the agency's San Diego office refused to comment on Raul Martinez's statement and forwarded all inquiries to the Border Patrol's Washington headquarters. The spokesman and the man who was shot are not related.

Michael Friel, a spokesman with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington, wouldn't directly confirm or deny Martinez's statements.

"We are fully cooperating with the San Diego Police Department's investigation, and we are providing by their request any criminal or immigration records we have," Friel said.

The case is being investigated in the United States by the San Diego Police Department. Homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney said the department doesn't comment on a person's criminal background – "whether they have it or not" – during an investigation.

The incident has touched off a firestorm of accusations in Mexico over U.S. immigration policy and allegations of improper use of force.

Guillermo MartÃÂ*nez was shot Friday during an encounter with a Border Patrol agent. MartÃÂ*nez managed to cross back into Mexico where he died at a hospital a day later.

Border Patrol officials said the shooting was in self-defense after someone threw rocks at the agent. Such assaults on agents have increased in the area where the shooting took place east of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, they said.

"It's a constant threat out there," said Shawn Moran, vice president of Local 1613 of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing Border Patrol agents.

In Mexico, the federal Attorney General's Office has taken over the case from Baja California state agents, who determined MartÃÂ*nez was shot in the back at a distance of between 6 feet and 17 feet.

A search through U.S. federal court records found no clear connection between a Guillermo MartÃÂ*nez and people smuggling. However, federal courts are overwhelmed by the numbers of people involved in smuggling and crossing the country illegally and reserve prosecution for the most extreme cases, Moran said.

"I've seen people caught dozens of times who haven't been prosecuted because the thresholds are so high for people smuggling," Moran said.

A spokesman with the Mexican Consul's office in San Diego declined to comment on the case yesterday, but said the office continues to condemn the killing and that consulate officials aren't aware of MartÃÂ*nez having a criminal record. News reports have listed MartÃÂ*nez's age as 18, but a sister in Tijuana, who denied rumors he was involved in smuggling people, said he was 20.

What was he doing on the border to begin with? Walking his dog?

No no..he was proving his machismo by taunting the BP.

The other thing I noticed in this article was that he was alive when surgeons operated. He survived that so they operated again. (dark humor y'all...very dark )

RR