Trouble at the Border

Tensions between the United States and Mexico may become further strained as the investigation into the shooting last Thursday of a 13-year-old Mexican boy by a U.S. Border Patrol agent unfolds.

So far the Border Patrol has said so little publicly that it’s impossible even to tell just which facts are in dispute, much less to understand what happened. What is known is that Border Patrol Agent Edward D. Cole and his partner spotted 15-year-old Eduardo Carillo-Estrada on the U.S. side and chased him back to the border fence, and that Cole ultimately shot Eduardo’s younger brother Humberto.

The Border Patrol has not made public its version of what prompted the shooting. The San Diego Police Department has said that as the two agents tried to subdue Humberto, a crowd gathered on the Mexican side of the border and began throwing rocks and bottles at them.

Cole fired his .357-magnum revolver into the air twice, then fired again through the border fence, striking Humberto--who had rocks in each hand preparing to throw, the police said. Border Patrol agents told reporters that it is not uncommon for them to be pelted with rocks along the border.

Eduardo Carillo-Estrada and Tijuana residents who witnessed the shooting tell a somewhat different story. They say that the rock-throwing began only after young Humberto was shot.

The Mexican consul-general in San Diego, Javier Escobar, labeled the shooting a “brutal, unjustified action and a very serious violation of the Mexican border.” Humberto remains in fair condition in a San Diego hospital.

Regardless of the genesis of the incident, several troubling questions cry out for answers. Among them is whether Cole believed that he was in danger of being killed or seriously wounded when he fired the shot. Another is whether he was aiming at Humberto Carillo-Estrada or simply fired wildly into a group of people.

Life along the border is hard--for those who struggle to patrol it and for those who exist in poverty in Mexico--and sometimes the rules are blurred. But under what circumstances is the shooting of a 13-year-old justified?