Border Shooting Brings $500,000 : Mexican Boy Wounded by Patrol Agent Wins Court Suit

A Tijuana boy who was shot and wounded by a Border Patrol agent in 1985 for allegedly throwing rocks over a fence at the international border was awarded $500,000 in damages on Thursday by a federal judge, who said the agent’s explanation for the shooting couldn’t be believed.

Agent Edward C. Cole shot Humberto Carrillo Estrada, now 14, who was standing on the Mexican side of the fence while two other agents attempted to arrest his older brother on the U.S. side. Cole said he shot the younger boy because he was about to throw a softball-size rock through a hole in the fence at another agent.

The incident caused an international furor, raising objections from Latino organizations and straining relations between the United States and Mexico. Investigations by the San Diego County district attorney’s office found insufficient evidence to prosecute Cole criminally.

But Carrillo sued the government in San Diego federal court, and the trial, which ran for seven days this month, turned on whether the shooting was justified because Cole had a reasonable belief that one of his partners was going to be injured.

On Thursday, U.S. Judge Judith N. Keep ruled that Cole’s version of what happened during the April 18, 1985, incident didn’t square with the facts.

Keep noted that testimony from three of the agent’s colleagues, along with the physical evidence in the case, demonstrated that Carrillo was not poised to throw a rock. It also showed that there was no hole in the fence where Carrillo’s older brother was scuffling with the border agents.

Cole’s partner was “not in danger of having his head smashed by a rock, as a one-inch by one-inch wire mesh fence separated him from Humberto,” Keep wrote.

“Hence, the court cannot find this shooting was a lawful use of force in defense of another,” Keep wrote. “Cole’s version of the facts is contrary to the evidence. What he says he believed is incredible. Hence, the court cannot find his belief is reasonable.”

A .38-caliber bullet fired by Cole struck Carrillo on the left side, entering his body below the shoulder, breaking three ribs and lodging in his right shoulder. He underwent surgery twice, once in San Diego and once in Tijuana.

Keep noted that Carrillo suffers pain from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, and has become “withdrawn, depressed, melancholy and tearful.” Keep cited testimony in the trial that it would take Carrillo three years of intensive psychological counseling to overcome the stress disorder.

At the time of the incident, Carrillo lived with four younger siblings and his mother in a sagging four-room house made of tar paper and wood over a plain concrete floor. The home is located five miles south of the border in a squatters neighborhood, where drinking water is purchased from trucks.

Keep ordered the U.S. government to pay Carrillo $500,000 for suffering and pain, along with an additional $74,000 for actual past and anticipated medical expenses.

Cole did not testify in the trial, but two statements by the agent were submitted as evidence. Keep characterized his statements as exhibiting “selective candor.”

Carrillo’s attorney, reached by telephone in Los Angeles, expressed satisfaction with the ruling.

“We think justice has been meted out,” said Marco Lopez. “I have not yet talked to my client, but I’m pretty certain he’ll be happy with it.”

In filing the civil suit, Carrillo asked for $3 million.

Border Patrol spokesmen could not be reached for comment.

According to Lopez, Cole was transferred to the Buffalo, N.Y., office of the Border Patrol.