Video of shooting contradicts Border Patrol's claims
the ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat. However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one subject who later died.”
A federal law enforcement official told CNN that the FBI’s use of the word “surrounded,” was “probably not the best choice of words,” and that it is more accurate to say that people were nearby throwing rocks.
The FBI has been studying videos of the incident and said some of the video does show rocks being thrown at the Border Patrol agents, the official said.
Hernandez Guereca was a secondary student in Juarez.
“My people have spoken to his family. His dad says he was a straight-A student. His secondary school even sent him on an academic trip because of his good grades,” Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said.
Reports that the Mexican military may have drawn weapons on U.S. Border Patrol agents, which surfaced earlier Wednesday, could not be immediately confirmed. The tape released by Univision did not show any Mexican military troops.
“We are aware of those reports, but I cannot confirm them to you at this time,” said Mexican military spokesman Enrique Torres. “I plan on speaking with the individuals who are said to have been involved, but I can’t and won’t confirm that to you. I cannot speculate.”
The Mexican government has requested a quick and transparent investigation into the fatal shooting.
Mexico “reiterates that the use of firearms to repel a rock attack represents a disproportionate use of force, particularly coming from authorities who receive specialized training on the matter,” the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a news release.
Simmons told CNN earlier that she did not know whether the person who was shot was on the Mexican or U.S. side of the border, but the agent never left U.S. territory.
The body was found on the Mexican side of the border, Simmons said.
According to the Mexican Foreign Ministry, the number of Mexicans who have been killed or wounded by U.S. border authorities has increased from five in 2008 to twelve in 2009 and seventeen so far this year.
Earlier, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman, Mark Qualia, said he could not comment because he does not know where the Mexican government obtained its statistics. He said there were 799 assaults on border agents from 1 October 2009 through 31 May — up from 745 assaults for the same time period in 2007-8 and 658 for the same span in 2008-9.
Lethal force, Qualia said, is allowed “when an agent is in imminent threat of physical or bodily harm, which could cause death or injury or in protection of an innocent third party.” The determination of when to use lethal force, he said, is made by each individual agent at the scene.
From 1 October through 31 May, he said, Custom and Border Protection agents used their firearms thirty-one times.
Rock-throwing can be considered a dangerous assault, Qualia said: “They’re not chunking pebbles.”
