FBI investigators say that a Border Patrol agent who shot and killed a 16-year-old Mexican boy had feared for his life.
A separate Office of the Inspector General investigation into the May 11 shooting of the illegal entrant is still under way.
The incident happened about 4:30 p.m. on the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation near Ajo when a white Dodge pickup truck failed to stop for a Border Patrol agent, officials said.
Officials with the FBI and the Border Patrol have declined to answer questions about the circumstances that led to the shooting: whether the agent's vehicle was struck by the truck before or after the agent fired, and how the agent was able to get ahead of the pickup truck and shoot into the cab. They say the case is still under investigation.
The driver, Juan de Jesus Rivera, 16, from Sonoyta, Sonora, was fatally wounded. He died at University Medical Center three days later, said his aunt, Gloria Mitchel. She and the boy's father viewed the body at a Tucson funeral home Friday before joining a caravan to escort him home to Sonoyta.
"It's sad that these things happen," the black-clad woman said quietly as she walked out of the funeral home to the truck that carried her nephew's coffin.
The family received very limited information about the shooting, she said.
Charles Griffin of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector said the agent was standing outside his vehicle "when the driver of an illegal alien load attempted to assault him with his vehicle. The agent feared for his life, discharged his weapon and fatally wounded the driver."
The agent, whom he did not identify, is back on duty. Six people in the truck were arrested and questioned by FBI agents, who investigated the case as an assault on a federal officer, he said.
FBI spokeswoman Deborah McCarley said some people successfully fled the truck after the shooting.
McCarley said the agent "fired at the vehicle coming toward him," but declined to elaborate how the agent was able to get ahead of the Dodge truck or how many agents were involved in the pursuit.
The Mexican consul in Tucson, Juan Calderón Jaimes, did not return several telephone calls seeking comment about the shooting.
In Arizona, the FBI has investigated nearly every shooting between Border Patrol agents and illegal entrants as an assault on a federal officer.
In many instances, agents were rammed, shot at, and grappled with in what's become an increasingly dangerous job.
Last year, for example, an investigation of an assault on a federal officer was opened after an illegal border crosser grappled with an agent, causing the agent's gun to go off and wounding both men. In a 2003 case, Alejandro Soto Santos was sentenced to five years for trying to run down an agent near Rio Rico the year prior.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/76199.php
A separate Office of the Inspector General investigation into the May 11 shooting of the illegal entrant is still under way.
The incident happened about 4:30 p.m. on the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation near Ajo when a white Dodge pickup truck failed to stop for a Border Patrol agent, officials said.
Officials with the FBI and the Border Patrol have declined to answer questions about the circumstances that led to the shooting: whether the agent's vehicle was struck by the truck before or after the agent fired, and how the agent was able to get ahead of the pickup truck and shoot into the cab. They say the case is still under investigation.
The driver, Juan de Jesus Rivera, 16, from Sonoyta, Sonora, was fatally wounded. He died at University Medical Center three days later, said his aunt, Gloria Mitchel. She and the boy's father viewed the body at a Tucson funeral home Friday before joining a caravan to escort him home to Sonoyta.
"It's sad that these things happen," the black-clad woman said quietly as she walked out of the funeral home to the truck that carried her nephew's coffin.
The family received very limited information about the shooting, she said.
Charles Griffin of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector said the agent was standing outside his vehicle "when the driver of an illegal alien load attempted to assault him with his vehicle. The agent feared for his life, discharged his weapon and fatally wounded the driver."
The agent, whom he did not identify, is back on duty. Six people in the truck were arrested and questioned by FBI agents, who investigated the case as an assault on a federal officer, he said.
FBI spokeswoman Deborah McCarley said some people successfully fled the truck after the shooting.
McCarley said the agent "fired at the vehicle coming toward him," but declined to elaborate how the agent was able to get ahead of the Dodge truck or how many agents were involved in the pursuit.
The Mexican consul in Tucson, Juan Calderón Jaimes, did not return several telephone calls seeking comment about the shooting.
In Arizona, the FBI has investigated nearly every shooting between Border Patrol agents and illegal entrants as an assault on a federal officer.
In many instances, agents were rammed, shot at, and grappled with in what's become an increasingly dangerous job.
Last year, for example, an investigation of an assault on a federal officer was opened after an illegal border crosser grappled with an agent, causing the agent's gun to go off and wounding both men. In a 2003 case, Alejandro Soto Santos was sentenced to five years for trying to run down an agent near Rio Rico the year prior.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/76199.php
