Suspect Slain, 3 Wounded Along Border

Four suspected border bandits were shot--one fatally--during a confrontation just north of the international border with officers of the Border Crime Prevention Unit, San Diego police said Tuesday.

Two of the suspects, all of whom are from Mexico, were in fair condition after surgery at UC San Diego Medical Center. Enrique Estrada, 27, was hit in the stomach and chest, and Rafael Navarro, 31, was wounded in the right leg and buttocks, a spokeswoman said.

The third suspect, Jose Manuel Villa-Luna, 23, was treated for minor wounds at the same hospital and was taken into custody by police.

All three were arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery.

The identity of the dead man was not known.

According to police, five uniformed officers of the border unit were on patrol at 9:17 p.m. Monday near Monument and Dairy Mart roads. They had just observed 25 to 30 illegal aliens pass through a hole in the fence about a half mile west of the San Ysidro border crossing when the officers were approached by five men coming from the top of a levee.

The five circled the officers and one of them drew a handgun from his waistband and pointed it at the officers, police said.

The three border agents and two San Diego police officers making up the border unit opened fire on the men. Three of the men fled after being wounded but were captured nearby. The man with the gun died at the scene. The fifth suspect escaped into Mexico, police said.

“There is every indication that they (the suspects) had no idea that they were officers,” Sgt. Ed Petrick of the San Diego Police Department said. “The suspects were looking down from a higher plane. The officers were back-lit against brush and it was pretty dark out there, so they couldn’t tell that they were officers.”

Police searched the area with dogs and recovered a .22-caliber revolver.

This was the third shooting this year involving the Border Crime Prevention Unit, San Diego police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

Robinson said the suspects are also believed to be responsible for a shooting last week that left an illegal alien paralyzed from the waist down.

“The incidents along the border are seasonal and increase depending on the migrant patterns,” Robinson said.

The Border Crime Prevention Unit is made up of Border Patrol agents and San Diego police officers who patrol the valleys and canyons near the U.S.-Mexican border, where bandits prey on migrants who illegally cross into the United States.

“Many times the crimes aren’t reported,” Petrick said. “They (the undocumented migrants) always carry cash because they have to have a certain amount of money to get them to the point where they can find work, so they become victims.”