Video Played at Hearing Shows BP Agent in Fatal Cross-Border Shooting of Mexican Teen Curt Prendergast - Arizona Daily Star
go to original June 20, 2017

A poster in the likeness of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez hangs next to a makeshift memorial, where he was fatally shot in 2012 by U.S. Border Patrol near the Mexico- U.S border, in Nogales, Mexico (Valeria Fernandez/AP)

Federal prosecutors showed glimpses Monday of video footage of a Border Patrol agent firing through the border fence in Nogales and killing a 16-year-old boy.

Portions of the video, which has not been made publicly available, were shown at a hearing in U.S. District Court as the prosecution and defense argued whether the video and a 3-D model of the crime scene should be presented to a jury.

Border Patrol Agent Lonnie Ray Swartz, who did not attend Monday’s hearing, faces a second-degree murder charge in the Oct. 10, 2012, death of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez. The trial is scheduled to begin in October.

Swartz fired through the fence as he responded to a smuggling incident around 11:30 p.m. in which rocks were thrown from Nogales, Sonora, at the roughly 20-foot-tall border fence built atop a rock embankment.

Two cameras operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed Swartz approaching the border fence on the U.S. side and firing into Mexico. Several law enforcement vehicles were already parked in the area.

The video also showed two individuals paused halfway up the border fence as they climbed into Mexico.

Swartz can be seen firing 16 times, including a pause while he stepped back from the fence, reloaded, and walked back to the fence and started firing again. An autopsy report by Mexican authorities indicated Elena Rodriguez was struck 10 times and most of the bullets hit him in the back.

The victim’s family maintains he was caught in the cross-fire as he walked home. Swartz’s defense lawyers say Elena Rodriguez was involved in a smuggling and rock-throwing incident in downtown Nogales that forced Swartz to fire through the fence.

Read the rest at Arizona Daily Star

Related: One Widow's Quest to Make Border Patrol Pay for Killing Her Husband (VICE)

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!