El Universal
January 02, 2006
TIJUANA - A young Mexican migrant shot just after crossing the border into the United States died in a hospital here over the weekend, the Baja California state attorney general´s office said.
Officials at the state Investigations Department said 18-year-old Guillermo Martínez Rodríguez was shot on Friday just a few meters inside U.S. territory but died Saturday in the Red Cross Central Hospital in Tijuana.
The attorney general´s office is investigating the shooting, which occurred just steps from the fence separating the two nations.
Local media reported that the young man may have been shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, according to statements made by one of Martínez´s two companions who crossed the border with him.
Martínez was taken to the Tijuana Red Cross hospital on Friday night in a private car by two men, one of whom said he had helped the man get back over the border into Mexico after he had been wounded.
The victim had one gunshot wound in the right side of his chest, but authorities still have not determined where the gunfire originated or the caliber of weapon used.
Meanwhile, Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy Walther said in a communiqué Saturday night that Border Patrol officials had arrived in Tijuana from Washington to investigate the matter.
"In no way is the use of a firearm justified in these cases, regardless of which side of the border is involved. We reject this type of attack, which in no way contributes to the relationship that must be maintained on both sides of the frontier," he said.
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/5.html Any further investigation and posting of articles related to this incident is welcome.
Border Patrol agent shoots man
By: Wire Reports -
A U.S. Border Patrol agent Saturday shot at a man standing on the Mexican side of the border after the man ---- who apparently was holding rocks ---- cocked his arm and made a throwing motion, San Diego police said.
The man ran away but officers later were told that a man with a gunshot wound went to a Tijuana hospital, San Diego homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney said.
The agent was on the lookout for illegal border crossers when he spotted a man holding a makeshift ladder and standing close to a border fence on the Mexican side, Rooney said.
The agent, who opened the gate of another fence, saw the man move toward the open gate, Rooney said.
The agent ran toward the man, who backed away and scooped up what appeared to be rocks, Rooney said.
When the man cocked his arm as if to throw a rock, the agent fired, police said.
The man grabbed his arm, then ran down an embankment and disappeared, Rooney said.
U.S. and Mexican detectives are jointly investigating the incident, Rooney said. A completed report will be forwarded to the U.S. Attorney's Office for review.
The agent involved in the shooting is an eight-year department veteran. Officials did not release his name.
http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2006/01/01/news/sandiego/123105211946.txt Credit to "Lone Wolf"
Mexico opens probe into U.S. border death
WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY - Mexico took the unusual step of opening an investigation into the killing of a man officials said was shot while sneaking into California, using the death to again draw attention to a contentious U.S. anti-immigration measure.
The death of the 18-year-old came as Mexico's government continued its vocal campaign against the bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last month.
"This occurrence does no more than provide evidence that only a law that guarantees legal entry and is respectful of human rights can resolve the migratory problem both countries face," Ruben Aguilar, the chief spokesman for President Vicente Fox, said Monday.
Many Mexicans oppose the U.S. measure, which would build more border fences, make illegal entry a felony and enlist military and local police to help stop undocumented migrants.
Aguilar said the death of Guillermo Martinez showed that extending border walls will not curb illegal immigration.
Martinez died Saturday in a Tijuana hospital, the Baja California state attorney general's office said. He died one day after he was shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent near a metal wall separating that city from San Diego, according to witnesses cited by Mexican officials.
Raul Martinez, a spokesman for the Border Patrol said the agent had been "assaulted by an individual who threw a large size rock."
"The agent, fearing for his life at that time, fired one round at the individual, who fled back to Mexico," Martinez said Monday.
The spokesman, who is not related to the dead 18-year-old, said U.S. investigators were unsure if the victim had been struck by the bullet because he crossed back into Mexican territory.
Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office said the probe was opened against "whomever is found to have been responsible," but did not name a suspect. Mexico generally does not try to apply its laws to events that occurred in other nations.
The attorney general's statement said Martinez was with four other people when he was shot.
Martinez was from the western city of Guadalajara but was living in Tijuana with his older brother, who apparently witnessed the shooting, said Luis Cabrera, Mexico's consul general in San Diego. Cabrera said Mexican officials were collecting reports from him and other witnesses.
Mexican officials have grown increasingly vocal in their opposition to the House bill passed Dec. 16, which Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez branded as "stupid and underhanded." Fox has called it shameful.
Officials of Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission have acknowledged that Mexico already employs some of the same methods in its own territory. But Aguilar again attacked the U.S. measure Monday, saying "walls and police crackdowns never will resolve migration problems."
In 2004, Mexican migrants in the United States sent home more than $16 billion in remittances, according to Mexico's central bank, giving the nation its second biggest source of foreign currency after oil exports.
The U.S. Senate is expected to address the immigration measure in February.
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Associated Press writer Atish Baidya in San Diego contributed to this report.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/13535692.htm