INS Official Defends Across-the-Border Shooting of Boy, 12

A Border Patrol agent who last week shot a 12-year-old Tijuana boy while agents were attempting to arrest the boy’s brother “did his job the way he had to,” a top Immigration and Naturalization Service official said Wednesday.

During a news conference at which he also lamented the recent increase in violence along the border, Harold Ezell, the INS’ western regional commissioner, vigorously defended the actions of Border Patrol Agent Edward D. (Ned) Cole. Last Thursday, Cole shot Humberto Carrillo-Estrada through the border fence near the San Ysidro port of entry during an altercation involving the boy’s 15-year-old brother, Eduardo.

“We are extremely sorry and sincerely regret that the boy was hurt,” Ezell said. “But . . . the Immigration and Naturalization Service, as well as the Border Patrol . . . are standing behind and fully endorsing what agent Cole did and had to do.

“We support agent Cole all the way. As far as we are personally concerned . . . agent Cole did what he had to do.”

The San Diego Police Department has forwarded a report on the shooting to the San Diego County district attorney’s office. Steve Casey, the district attorney’s spokesman, said Wednesday that a decision on whether any changes will be filed against Cole may be made by the end of this week.

The across-the-border shooting angered Mexican officials, and the Mexican government has demanded that Cole “be punished to the full extent of the law,” according to a statement released by Mexican Consul General Javier Escobar.

Humberto was listed in good condition at Mercy Hospital late Wednesday and may be released by the end of the week, hospital officials said. The boy’s mother has retained Mariano Lopez, a Los Angeles attorney who has represented the United Farm Workers and myriad Latino causes.

In the wake of the shooting, one of the major questions raised has been whether Cole was justified in using his weapon.

According to police officials, Eduardo was caught by Border Patrol agents as he attempted to climb the border fence into Mexico after being spotted and pursued by agents. As the agents attempted to subdue Eduardo, a small unruly crowd on the Mexican side of the fence began throwing rocks and bottles, police said. Cole reportedly fired two warning shots into the air, and then fired at least one shot through the fence, wounding Humberto. However, some witnesses said later that the rocks and bottles were not thrown until after the shooting.

At the news conference, both Ezell and Alan Eliason, the chief patrol agent of the San Diego Border Patrol sector, argued that Cole’s actions were justifiable because the rocks being thrown could have severely injured or even killed the agents.

“We do not intend to shoot everybody that throws a rock at us,” Eliason said. “But there are circumstances, there are times when the events are such that that is the last chance, the last measure we have left.” Border Patrol policy specifies that agents should use their weapons only when they believe their life or that of their partner or someone else is in danger, Eliason said.

“There are judgments made by officers,” Eliason said. “We simply cannot write a set of rules to dictate every circumstance an officer is going to face.”

Eliason also pointed out that another Border Patrol agent last month received a three-inch cut that required stitches when he was struck by a rock thrown by a fleeing alien.

“A rock can make a cut, a rock can make a concussion, a rock can kill,” Eliason said.

As evidence of what he termed the “growing violence along our border,” Ezell noted that two other “particularly disturbing” incidents have occurred near the border during the past week.

On Tuesday night, two suspected robbers were shot about 8:30 p.m. by members of the Border Crime Prevention Unit after the officers said they saw them and a third man rob two others at gunpoint in the hills about one-quarter mile east of the San Ysidro crossing--close to the site where Humberto was wounded last week.

When the officers approached the suspects and identified themselves in Spanish, one man, identified by police as Enrique Quintero, 23, of Tijuana, drew a .38-caliber revolver from his waistband, police spokesman Rick Carlson said. All three officers fired their weapons, striking Quintero in the mouth and rib cage and grazing another suspect, identified as 19-year-old Jose Luis Garcia Reyes of Veracruz, in the side.

Quintero was hospitalized overnight at Mercy Hospital and was released Wednesday, while Garcia was treated at the scene Tuesday night. The third suspect, identified as Gregorio Castenada Gonzales, 21, of Tijuana, was uninjured. All three have been booked in County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and robbery, Carlson said.

The other incident cited by Ezell was one in which four Tijuana police officers were accused of threatening border task force officers who apprehended them last week about 40 yards inside the U.S. border. The Mexican officers, who were arrested and released the next day, have claimed that they were following bandits when they crossed the border.

Saying that “the fence is the line,” Eliason said the Mexican officers had no authority to cross the border, and added that only the “utmost restraint” by the U.S. officers prevented the incident from escalating into a shootout.

Calling the local border region “an arena of assaults,” Eliason also pointed out that assaults against Border Patrol agents have increased recently. Last year, there were 56 assaults against border agents, while 25 assaults have already been reported this year.

Ezell called on Mexican law enforcement authorities for “greater cooperative efforts” to help stem the flow of illegal aliens across the border. Eliason, meanwhile, noted that 239 local agents are scheduled to be added to the 525-member Border Patrol force over the next year.