San Diego

Humberto Carrillo-Estrada, the 12-year-old boy wounded by a Border Patrol agent last week, left Mercy Hospital late Thursday and returned to his Tijuana home with his mother and brother, said hospital spokesman Norman Greene.

The boy was shot once in the back with a .357 magnum pistol fired by agent Edward D. (Ned) Cole. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said Cole fired two warning shots in the air before firing a single shot across the border at Humberto. The boy and other youths were standing in Mexico by the border fence, throwing rocks at two agents who were attempting to arrest the boy’s brother, Eduardo, said INS officials.

Eduardo, 15, who was attempting to return to Mexico after entering the United States, said agents beat him with their nightsticks when they arrested him. Marco Lopez, an American lawyer representing Humberto, charged that it was the agents who first threw rocks at Eduardo. Lopez also charged that Cole never fired two warning shots and instead fired four times across the border at Humberto, hitting him once. The attorney has filed a $3-million claim against the INS on behalf of Humberto.

Greene said that Humberto’s wounds were healing well and will not require further medical attention except for a routine examination in a few weeks.