Thread: Mexican government says US Border Patrol agent fatally shot Mexican on border

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, September 5, 8:19 PM

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department says a Mexican has been fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent on the frontier between the cities of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

The department says in a Wednesday statement that the Mexican government has strongly protested the shooting, and reiterated its objection to the use of force by Border Patrol agents. The statement doesn’t given any details of the shooting.

A Border Patrol spokesman hasn’t responded to a request for comment.

Mexican government says US Border Patrol agent fatally shot Mexican on border - The Washington Post

I just love this crap." Mexico " we can shoot and kill American's but they better not shoot back or that would be racist!!!! THAT ABOUT RIGHT??????

God is there any way that you help us to change these neighbors by other better.

Yes get obama the hell out & some one with back bone . In the wh & the only one with this is gov jan or Joe
Come On Gov wake the hell up

No mention of what the sweet innocent Mexican citizen was doing at the time? Throwing stones, shooting at the agent, smuggling drugs? And which side of the border?

Am I supposed to feel bad about this? Somehow I seriously doubt the BP Agent was using this mexican as "target practice"! Tell the WHOLE story.

By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas September 6, 2012 (AP)

The FBI and Border Patrol are investigating after the Mexican government said a Mexican citizen was killed when a U.S. agent patrolling the Rio Grande fired his weapon across the border, a Border Patrol spokesman said Thursday.

Border agents were aboard a boat near Laredo when a group of people began throwing rocks at them Monday, Border Patrol spokesman Bill Brooks said. One of the agents fired shots across the border toward Nuevo Laredo.

Brooks said it wasn't immediately clear to the agents whether anyone was hit by the bullets. Mexico's Foreign Relations Department issued a statement Wednesday saying a Mexican citizen had been fatally shot.

FBI spokesman Erick Vasys said his agency is investigating the rock-throwing as an attack on federal officers, while the shooting will be part of an internal review by the Border Patrol.

"We normally and regularly open investigations when a federal officer is assaulted," Vasys said. "Especially if gunfire is involved."

The Mexican foreign relations department's statement protested the use of what it called disproportionate force in immigration control and demanded thorough investigation of the incident. Ricardo Alday, spokesman at the Mexican embassy in Washington, said the Mexican government still is gathering information on the case and also expects to get the results of the investigations by U.S. authorities.

Border agents are generally allowed to use lethal force against rock throwers.

In 2010, a 15-year-old boy was killed by bullets fired by a U.S. Border Patrol agent from El Paso, Texas, into Juarez, Mexico. Some witnesses said people on the Mexican side of the river, including the teen, were throwing rocks at the agent as he tried to arrest an illegal immigrant crossing the Rio Grande.

Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones in El Paso last year dismissed a lawsuit by the family of the boy because the teen was on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande when he was shot. U.S. law gives the government immunity when such claims arise in a foreign country, Briones noted, and the "harm that the Plaintiffs allege ... was felt in Mexico."

A U.S. Department of Justice investigation, which included interviews with more than 25 civilian and law-enforcement witnesses, determined no federal civil rights charges could be pursued because "accident, mistake, misperception, negligence and bad judgment were not sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation."

"This review took into account evidence indicating that the agent's actions constituted a reasonable use of force or would constitute an act of self-defense in response to the threat created by a group of smugglers hurling rocks at the agent and his detainee," the department said.

One Old Vet

US Feds Investigate Reported Fatal Border Shooting - ABC News