Shooting of Boy Intensifies Mood in Border Town

The rhythm of life in this poverty-stricken border community changed abruptly Thursday when a Border Patrol agent fired across the international line, wounding a 13-year-old Mexican boy.

Horrified by what they saw or heard, many parents are now keeping their children indoors or within sight at all times, interviews with residents revealed Saturday.

Humberto Carrillo-Estrada was shot by Agent Edward D. (Ned) Cole, who had been trying to apprehend the boy’s 15-year-old brother, Eduardo, on the U.S. side of the border. The chase ended at the border fence, about one-quarter mile east of the port of entry here, where Cole fired into a crowd that officials said had been throwing rocks and bottles at the agent.

Humberto, who was shot once in the back, was rushed to Mercy Hospital in San Diego, where his condition was upgraded Saturday from serious to fair, said hospital spokesman Norman Greene. The boy was also moved from an intensive care unit to a “pediatric special care unit,” he said.

Open Door to Children

Before Thursday, children regularly climbed over the fence or through its many gaping holes to play games or catch lizards on a steep, barren hill on the U.S. side, local residents said.

“I don’t let them play over there anymore,” said Martha Sanchez, 36, a mother of eight, whose home lies just south of the mountain. “I’m afraid they (Border Patrol agents) will kill them.

“When I see pollos (illegals) on the hill and Border Patrol cars nearby,” she added, standing on the porch of the home from which Mexican music blared on the radio, “I shut the door and windows because I’m afraid they’ll start shooting.”

Yet Sanchez, among others, also said it was not unusual in the past for Border Patrol agents to wave hello at children who crossed the line to play on the mountainside and even say “adios” when they returned home.

One man added that “sometimes they (Border Patrol agents) shoot rabbits and throw them over the fence for the poor people who live here.”

Some Given Nicknames

“Once they gave my oldest child a dollar,” recalled Rosa Grejel, 34, who rents a small home in the neighborhood for $20 a month. “Now I tell my children not to even look at them.”

Grejel also said some of the agents who work in the area have earned nicknames from young men who have had encounters with them while trying to cross the border illegally.

“They call him (Agent Cole) ‘Carnicero’ (butcher),” she said, “because he treats the pollos so badly.”

“They are dogs, animals,” grumbled Francisco Corona Cardenas, looking up at two Border Patrol vans that were parked about 20 yards away. He continued walking along the fence until he was just out of sight of the men in the vans and then ducked through a large hole in the fence onto U.S. soil.

It was Cardenas who picked up Humberto Thursday and carried him through a hole in the fence, screaming at Border Patrol agents to give the wounded boy medical assistance.

Many Cross Border

While Cardenas was speaking, men and women could be seen casually strolling through a hole in the fence and over the hill, presumably in search of work in the United States. Border Patrol vehicles were parked a few hundred yards away.

“They (Border Patrol agents) used to let us cross to buy hamburgers, milk, bread, or other things,” Cardenas said. “Not anymore. I don’t know why.”

Meanwhile, some residents who witnessed the shooting said Saturday that the agent fired four shots, not three, as reported by San Diego officials.

What’s more, the wounded boy’s brother, who had just been collared by Border Patrol officials when the incident occurred, says rocks and bottles were not thrown by an angry crowd at Border Patrol agents involved in the incident until after the shots were fired.

Eduardo was released from detention at the U.S. Border Patrol Station at San Ysidro Saturday and joined his mother, Maria Elena, 36, at the hospital, spokesman Greene said.

No Comment by Agency

On Friday, San Diego Police Department officials said Cole fired two warning shots in the air and one shot at the crowd. Border Patrol officials have refused to comment pending the results of an investigation.

But some residents of this community of wooden shacks and crumbling stucco homes say Cole fired at them twice.

“Here are the bullet holes,” said Cardenas, pointing at two of several depressions circled with white chalk on a red cement wall facing the fence that separates the two countries.

“There is the blood,” added Cardenas.

Contacted at the hospital, Humberto’s brother, Eduardo, said: “I was there, he fired two shots in the air and two at the people, one of which hit my brother.”

“Our investigation did not reach the same conclusion,” said San Diego Police Department spokesman Bill Robinson. He added that “it is difficult to determine bullet holes in cement.”

Point of Dispute

Eduardo also said the crowd did not begin throwing rocks and bottles at Border Patrol agents until “after the accident.” Police officials contend that Cole fired his Border Patrol-issued .357 magnum under a hail of a objects thrown by an angry crowd.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said Saturday it will take “a hard look” at the incident, which is under investigation.

Greg Leo, director of congressional and public affairs for the agency, said “We do not have a response,” to the statement by the Mexican consulate general in San Diego, Javier Escobar, that the shooting was “a very serious violation of the Mexican border.”