US Agent Indicted for Killing Mexican Teen Across the Nogales Border Sputnik
go to original October 10, 2015

A US Border Patrol agent was arraigned on federal murder charges Friday for killing a 16-year-old Mexican teen from across the border three years ago.

Agent Lonnie Ray Swartz is the first agent to ever face a murder charge for shooting a Mexican national across the border, though he is not the first to do so.

On October 10, 2012, Swartz shot and killed 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was just walking down a sidewalk in Nogales, Sonora. Swartz was across the border in Nogales, Arizona. He claims that he fired on the teenager in self-defense, against people who were throwing rocks on the other side of the fence.

The fence is made of iron, with 3.5-inch gaps, and built atop a steep embankment, making rock throwers, even if they existed, far from a threat. Rocks would have had to have fit through the small spaces between the bars, or have been thrown 40-50 feet into the air to clear the tall fence and harm Swartz, NPR reported.

Rodriguez was shot ten times by the Border Patrol agent, eight of which hit him in the back.

...Mexican witnesses have maintained that the boy was not throwing rocks and was just walking down the sidewalk. Surveillance footage of the incident exists, but has not yet been made public.

Read the rest at Sputnik

Related: US Border Patrol Agent Pleads Not Guilty in Shooting of Teen (Associated Press)

Related: Indictment of US Border Patrol Agent for Murder Provides Some Much-Needed Accountability (Immigration Impact)

Related: New Report Depicts Ongoing Abuses by Border Patrol (Immigration Impact)

Photo: Flickr/Aengus Anderson

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