Border Official’s Shooting Stirs U.S.-Mexico Dispute

U.S. and Mexican officials disagreed sharply Wednesday on the question of whether Americans take sufficient steps to warn Mexican authorities about chases of crime suspects who seek to escape by driving across the border into Mexico.

While U.S. officials insisted that every effort is made to notify their Mexican counterparts in such circumstances, Mexican customs officials asserted that U.S. agencies--particularly the Border Patrol--have frequently failed to warn Mexican authorities.

The danger of such incidents was illustrated Tuesday evening, when a Mexican customs official was killed, apparently by a ricocheting bullet, after customs agents fired shots in an attempt to stop a van that failed to halt at the Mexican customs station. U.S. Border Patrol officials had pursued the van for several miles down Interstate 5, which leads to Mexico. It was the second time in the last five months that a Mexican customs official in Tijuana had been killed by gunfire resulting from a vehicle apparently trying to flee U.S. authorities.

“We have told them several times that we would like to be notified as soon as possible,” said Salvador Hirales Barrera, Mexican customs commandant in Tijuana. “I’m afraid that this could continue to result in the death of innocent people. If we’re not advised on time, there’s not much we can do to stop a speeding car.”

But Ed Pyeatt, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol, said every effort is made to notify Mexican officials of possible border-crashers.

“We like to have them know as soon as we know,” said Pyeatt.

The responsibility for notifying Mexican authorities lies with the Border Patrol station situated right at the border crossing, Pyeatt said. Officers at the 24-hour station, who are in radio contact with other units, can quickly walk or run the less than 50 yards to the Mexican customs office and inform Mexican officials that officers are in “hot pursuit” of a suspect heading toward the border, Pyeatt said. The system is quicker than radio or telephone contact, Pyeatt said.

On Monday night, Pyeatt said, an officer at the station attempted to warn Mexican officials, but he arrived just as the careening van was arriving at the Mexican customs post. The Border Patrol, judging the van to be “suspicious,” began following it on Dairy Mart Road in San Ysidro.

“We just didn’t have enough time” to sufficiently warn Mexican authorities, said Pyeatt.

Mexican authorities said that no one arrived to tell them about the speeding vehicle.

They also said there was no warning on July 15 when a car carrying two robbery suspects attempted to shake pursuing San Diego police by fleeing into Mexico. A Mexican customs official was killed in an exchange of gunfire between the vehicle and authorities.

After that shoot-out, a meeting was held in San Ysidro between law enforcement authorities from both sides of the border. But Mexican officials said the problem persists. Neither Mexican nor U.S. officials could say how many chases ended at the border this year.

Officials of the California Highway Patrol and the San Diego Police Department said they also try to notify Mexican authorities when pursuing cars toward the border. But in neither case are communications direct.

Sgt. Joe Ortiz of the California Highway Patrol said his office informs the Border Patrol, which is expected to notify the Mexican side. But a dispatcher noted that the process could be lengthy.

San Diego police officials use a “hot line” between police headquarters in San Diego and the municipal police office in Tijuana, said Bill Robinson, a police spokesman. However, there is no direct hot line to Mexican customs.

“It can be a judgment call,” Ortiz said. “How can you be sure that a suspect is really headed toward the border? . . . And from five miles out, he can be there is less than five minutes.”

In Tuesday’s incident, Mexican officials said they began shooting at the van as it tried to elude the Mexican customs station, about 5 p.m. Although the idea was to blow out a tire and stop the car, a bullet apparently ricocheted and killed Leopoldo Sanchez Urrutia, 75, a 30-year veteran of the force who planned to retire shortly, according to Mexican customs officials.

The Mexican federal police are investigating the shooting. The van, which had California license plates, was found shortly afterward. Mexican officials said it carried as many as 14 people, some of whom were being held as witnesses.