San Ysidro
Members of the Border Crimes Task Force shot and killed a man Monday night after he and a companion apparently mistook the group for illegal aliens and tried to rob them, a San Diego Police Department spokesman said.
The unit was patrolling an area near Spring Canyon, three miles east of the San Ysidro border crossing, when it was approached by two men. One of the men yelled in Spanish, “Stop and get down!” as the two brandished tree branches covered with cloth to look like rifles, police spokesman Bill Robinson said.
A member of the unit--not identified by police--then shot and killed one of the men, Robinson said. The man, believed to be a Mexican citizen, was not carrying identification and had not been identified by Tuesday night, a San Diego County coroner’s spokesman said.
The other man, Angel V. Mata, 33, a Mexican national, was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and is being held at San Diego County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.
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