$3-Million Claim Filed in Border Shooting of Boy : ‘I Feel Sad They Behaved That Way,’ Tearful 12-Year-Old Says of Patrol at Press Conference

A U.S. lawyer for a 12-year-old Mexican boy who was shot by a Border Patrol agent filed a $3-million claim Thursday against the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Los Angeles attorney Marco Lopez also charged that Border Patrol agents first threw rocks at the wounded boy’s older brother as the brother attempted to return to Mexico April 18 after entering the United States illegally for a few minutes.

Border Patrol officials have said agent Edward D. (Ned) Cole shot Humberto Carrillo-Estrada after Humberto and other Mexican youngsters pelted Cole and his partner with rocks. The agents were attempting to arrest Humberto’s brother, Eduardo, 15, when the younger boy and others standing on the Mexican side of the border fence began throwing rocks and bottles, officials said.

According to Lopez, it was the Border Patrol that began throwing rocks at Eduardo as he raced down a hill and attempted to scale the 9-foot border fence to cross into Mexico.

Lopez also repeated accounts of the shooting given by Mexican witnesses who said Cole fired four shots at Humberto, not one, as alleged by U.S. authorities. The Border Patrol version of the shooting has Cole firing two warning shots in the air before he fired one shot through the fence at Humberto, who was hit in the back.

Lopez told a crowded press conference at Mercy Hospital that witnesses told him the two agents involved in the shooting left the scene, leaving the youth slumped on the ground and bleeding.

Humberto, who is recovering, appeared at the press conference dressed in pajamas. The slightly built youth, who appears small for his age, was overwhelmed when questioned by reporters about the shooting and started to cry.

“I feel sad that they (the Border Patrol) behaved that way,” he said in Spanish as tears welled in his eyes. Moments later his pediatrician ordered him taken back to his room. A hospital spokesman said the boy will be discharged by today.

U.S. officials said the incident took place near the San Ysidro port of entry. Cole fired one round from his .357 magnum revolver because the agents feared for their lives, said Chief Patrol Agent Alan Eliason.

Eliason said Thursday that Border Patrol officials had discussed the possibility of charging Humberto and Eduardo with assault on a federal officer, but “we decided not to go forward” with the complaint.

Eduardo and the boys’ mother, Maria Elena Estrada, also attended the press conference but did not discuss the shooting. Estrada, who has been staying at the hospital with Humberto, said the family will return to Tijuana when the boy is released. Immigration officials said that Eduardo has been charged with illegal entry but he will be allowed to return home with his mother.

On the day of the shooting, Eduardo crossed the border illegally “as he was accustomed to doing in order to buy a hamburger,” said Lopez. While returning to Mexico, Eduardo was spotted by Cole and the other agent and the two began chasing him.

“A Border Patrol agent threw rocks at him (Eduardo) as he ran toward the fence,” said Lopez. “Then they reached him and began clubbing him (with nightsticks).” At this point, Humberto and several other young people on the Mexican side began to protest the agents’ treatment of Eduardo, said Lopez.

“When Humberto saw his brother being beaten, he protested aloud. When they did not heed his call . . . He was in the middle of the street, reaching perhaps for a rock. The Border Patrol agent took a crouched position, took aim at a girl who hit the deck. He then aimed at Humberto and fired four times. There were no warning shots in the air. He fired at Humberto,” said Lopez.

San Diego police spokesman Lt. Paul Ybarrondo said the department’s investigation reveals that Cole fired two warning shots in the air and only one at Humberto. Police investigators have submitted the results of their investigation to the district attorney’s office, where a decision will be made in the next week on whether to prosecute Cole.

Lopez’s account of the number of shots Cole fired across the border also contradicts Eduardo’s account of the incident. Eduardo had said he saw Cole shoot two warning shots in the air and fire twice across the border, wounding his brother.

After wounding Humberto, the agents refused to aid the boy, said Lopez. Lopez said Francisco Corona Cardenas, 27, picked up the youth and carried him through a hole in the fence “300 to 400 yards into the U.S.” before he reached other Border Patrol agents who radioed for medical assistance.

Eliason declined to comment on Lopez’s account of the shooting.

“I’m not going to get into a debate with an attorney who says he is going to sue us,” said Eliason. However, he said that Border Patrol officials are supportive of Cole’s action and still believe he did nothing wrong.

Harold Ezell, western regional commissioner for the INS, said Wednesday that he regretted the shooting but he believed that Cole was justified in shooting the boy.

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

Mexican Consul General Javier Escobar, who was at the press conference, called Ezell’s comments “shocking” and the shooting “brutal.”

“Mr. Ezell found the shooting by agent Cole a justified action. I’m shocked, because the facts and witnesses (testimony) show no justification for the brutal action of agent Cole,” Escobar said.

Mexican government officials have demanded an investigation of the shooting and have asked that Cole be disciplined.

Fernando Chavez, head of the state Mexican-American Political Assn., said that his group has joined state and federal legislators in asking for a Department of Justice investigation of the shooting.

“You simply cannot justify clubbing a 15-year-old boy or shooting a 12-year-old boy. There was no pursuit of a criminal with a weapon,” Chavez said.

Mercy Hospital spokesman Norman Greene said that the cost of Humberto’s health care totaled $10,000 on Thursday. Greene said the hospital will bill the Border Patrol, but hospital officials do not expect to be paid. The family cannot afford to pay, he said.

Hospital officials have established a fund for the family. Greene said that any proceeds received by the Humberto Carrillo-Estrada Fund “will be used exclusively for Humberto.”