Mexican Youth Wounded by Patrol Agent in 1985 : State Backs D.A.’s Lack of Charges in Border Shooting

The California attorney general’s office has found that San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller did not abuse his power when he declined to prosecute a U.S. Border Patrol agent who shot and seriously wounded a 12-year-old Mexican boy more than a year ago.

Officials said the finding closes the case on the shooting of Humberto Carrillo Estrada, who was shot April 18, 1985, as he stood beside the border fence in Tijuana. The officer who shot him, Edward Cole, was in U.S. territory.

The much-publicized shooting was condemned by Mexican officials and by critics on the U.S. side who said it illustrated a pattern of abuse by the Border Patrol.

In an eight-page letter sent this week and made public Wednesday, Steve White, chief assistant attorney general, said the district attorney’s controversial decision not to prosecute “was not an abuse of discretion.”

The district attorney’s office, in an action that sparked fierce protests, maintained that the shooting was a legally defensible response in the face of a life-threatening barrage of rocks being thrown by Carrillo and others.

Carrillo, who largely has recovered after being shot in the back with a .38-caliber bullet, has denied throwing any rocks.

In its findings, the attorney general’s office cited statements by witnesses that Carrillo and others were heaving “softball-sized” rocks at the officers through a hole in the border fence or over the nine-foot chain-link fence.

“If the throwing of a softball-sized rock over a nine-foot fence can be seen as threatening serious bodily injury (or death), the shooting was legally defensible,” the attorney general’s letter stated.

Because of the controversy surrounding the shooting, several groups and individuals--including former Assemblyman Richard Alatorre, who is now a Los Angeles city councilman--had requested that the attorney general conduct an independent investigation.

However, like the district attorney, the attorney general stopped short of endorsing the shooting.

Dist. Atty. Miller said he is satisfied with the findings.

“I think it’s a correct conclusion, and it’s in keeping with the facts as we determined them,” Miller said.

But others are not so happy. Roberto Martinez, chairman of the Coalition for Law and Justice, a group that monitors alleged rights abuses, said, “We were hoping that an independent investigation would really bring out the truth, that it was an unjustified shooting.”

Previously, an internal investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the parent body of the Border Patrol, had found the shooting was justified.

Agent Cole, a six-year-veteran, has since transferred--voluntarily, officials say--to Buffalo, N.Y.

Carrillo has filed a civil lawsuit against the United States, seeking $3 million in damages. His attorney, Marco Lopez, said the attorney general’s report will have no affect on the suit. He declined further comment.