Data on Border Bandit’s Death Disputed : Private Autopsy Indicates Police Fired Fatal Shot at Close Range

A Mexican border bandit killed May 4 in a shoot-out with police died from a bullet fired close to his head, according to a private San Diego pathologist.

Dr. Hormez Guard, who was hired by a family attorney to study tissue samples taken from the body of the man after it was exhumed from a Tijuana cemetery, said he found evidence of gunpowder, which contradicts official accounts. Reports by the coroner and San Diego police say that Julio Arroyo Zaragoza, 33, was shot from at least 30 feet away.

The dead man’s brother, Jaime Arroyo Zaragoza, 23, awaiting trial on robbery and attempted murder charges in the incident, has claimed that police killed his brother after he was wounded and disarmed.

Guard, a former San Diego County pathologist, said his tests “show there is a great deal of gunpowder under the skin,” indicating that Julio Arroyo Zaragoza was shot at close range by police.

San Diego attorney Jose Tafolla, representing Jaime Arroyo Zaragoza, said Wednesday that based on Guard’s test results, he will ask for an investigation by federal and San Diego County grand juries. He added that if the county grand jury determines that police acted in a criminal manner, he will ask the state attorney general’s office to prosecute, rather than the county district attorney’s office.

“I think that what we have here is a federal violation of the victim’s civil rights and a criminal conspiracy on the part of police,” Tafolla said. “I don’t think you can ask the district attorney to prosecute the police, if in fact they should be prosecuted, after his office has cleared them of any wrongdoing in the shooting.” San Diego County Coroner David J. Stark acknowledged Wednesday that Guard had performed additional tests that his office should have performed.

Exchanged Shots

San Diego police reported that Arroyo died when he exchanged gunfire with members of the Border Crimes Prevention Unit, which is composed of both San Diego police officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Homicide Lt. Paul Ybarrondo said Arroyo was shot in the forehead by a bullet fired from 30 feet away by Officer Cesar Solis. The shooting occurred at night in a canyon about a half mile east of the San Ysidro port of entry and just north of the international border.

However, Guard said his tests show that Arroyo died from a contact wound suffered when the barrel of a gun is placed on the skin or very close to it. The results corroborate a written autopsy report released Wednesday by the Baja California district attorney’s office describing the fatal injury as a contact wound.

Guard added that additional tests are being done to look for traces of gunpowder on the skull bone around the entry wound. The results of the tests will be known in two days.

An autopsy performed May 6 for the San Diego County coroner’s office by pathologist Dr. David M. Katsuyama did not mention gunpowder, Stark said. However, the coroner acknowledged that Katsuyama made only a visual inspection of the body.

“Dr. Guard is doing tests that Dr. Katsuyama did not do,” Stark said. “Dr. Katsuyama viewed the tissue with the naked eye.

“But Dr. Katsuyama still feels quite confident he is correct. But if he had to do it again, he would have ordered microscopic tests.”

Both Stark and district attorney’s spokesman Steve Casey noted that Guard resigned from the coroner’s office in 1984, after several disputes with Stark and county prosecutors over autopsy results and procedures.

Casey said Guard’s findings “fly directly in the face” of Katsuyama’s autopsy report.

“Not only did it not appear to be the case, it appeared very strongly to be other than (a close-up shooting) when we received it in May,” he said.

However, Casey added that the district attorney “would be most anxious to see the results of the (new) lab tests.”

Guard replied, “You tell them (Stark and Casey) that they did not perform the right tests. Dr. Katsuyama did not take the time to examine the tissues around the wound. . . . This shows the lack of professionalism and high level of incompetence in that office.”

Katsuyama and San Diego Police Chief William Kolender could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Police said Julio and Jaime Arroyo Zaragoza, and an unidentified third person, were robbing illegal aliens in the border canyons on the night of the shooting. Police say that Julio died when police and agents returned fire after he emptied his five-shot revolver at them.