Border Patrol Still Won’t Concede That an Agent Fired Crippling Shot

Seven months after Ignacio Mendez Pulido was shot there is still a dispute over whether the bullet that is lodged in his back was fired from the gun of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

The Border Patrol acknowledges that two of its agents fired three rounds into Mexico on the night of Dec. 21 when they and several illegal aliens inside a patrol van were pelted by rocks thrown from the Mexican side.

But the agency still refuses to concede that its gunfire left the 24-year-old Mendez, a Tijuana mechanic who is married to a San Diego County woman, permanently paralyzed.

Doctors have declined, for medical reasons, to attempt to remove the bullet so it can be matched with Border Patrol guns.

Now, legal depositions from four Mexican nationals who were present during the rock-throwing confrontation have also failed to positively connect the Border Patrol gunfire with Mendez. The depositions, made available to The Times by Mendez’s attorney, make it doubtful that there will ever be an independent version of what happened in the dark canyons that night.

Sworn Depositions

The Mexicans, who were detained by the Border Patrol at the time of the shooting, said in sworn legal depositions that they never saw Border Patrol agents fire their guns and that they never saw Ignacio Mendez Pulido fall to the ground with a bullet in his back.

However, one of them reported seeing Mendez standing on Mexican soil and looking across at a Border Patrol van while rocks were being thrown at the two U.S. agents. He also said he saw the agents answer with three rounds from their revolvers.

The men’s testimony, taken between January and March before they were deported to Mexico, was considered crucial because they were believed to be the only impartial observers of the confrontation near the Otay Mesa border crossing.

According to the Border Patrol account, the agents and some illegal aliens inside the patrol van were pelted by rocks. The agents thought gunshots were being fired at them.

Fearing for their own safety and that of their detainees, the agents fired three shots across the border. However, the Border Patrol agents did not believe anyone was struck by the gunfire because an immediate ground and aerial search of both sides of the border did not reveal any injured victims.

Reported by Wife

But, at dawn the next morning, an American woman, Juana Mendez Pulido, went to the border and told U.S. officials that agents had shot her husband in the back, leaving him permanently paralyzed.

According to Marco Lopez, an attorney representing the Mendez couple, Ignacio Mendez was not involved in the rock-throwing incident. Lopez said Mendez was instead hiding under a bush when he heard the rock-throwing commotion and then ran back into Mexico.

“He saw what was coming down and he decided to make a run for it,” Lopez said. “My guy was never told to stop. He was just shot at. He was running alone. He was running in no one’s direction. Granted it was dark. But his silhouette was still visible.”

Border Patrol officials said the two agents acted responsibly. “They’ve been cleared,” said Dana Cunningham, a Border Patrol spokesman. “The shooting was justified.”

However, Ralph Paige, an official with the Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates allegations of misconduct by the Border Patrol, said Tuesday that his internal investigation was never concluded. Instead, he said, the case was taken over by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose review is still pending.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that the bullet that struck Mendez has not been removed for examination to see whether it fits either of the Border Patrol agents’ guns.

Lopez said that doctors are concerned that removing the bullet would cause a serious medical threat to Mendez, who is expected to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Because of the lack of direct physical evidence, the sworn testimony from the four Mexican nationals was considered crucial to the case. Although they could not say who was firing guns and who was hit, they did describe the commotion.

Hugo Rivera Huerta said he was inside the patrol van when it was hit by rocks, one of which struck him in the face.

“I heard some loud noises, like the sound you hear when a bazooka fires,” he said in describing the rocks hitting the van. “It was a terrible fear. It was a very, very bad experience. I couldn’t talk because blood was filling my mouth.”

Juan Carlos Torres Silva said he too thought the rocks were bullets. “I grabbed my head and I threw myself down on the floor of the van,” he said.

Ramon Gutierez Sanchez, detained nearby by other Border Patrol agents, said he heard no gunfire, but did see Mendez standing alone nearby. “He was already standing up on Mexican territory,” he said. “He just turned around and looked at the patrol vehicle.”

A fourth man thought to be a witness to the incident provided even less detail.

Even though the witnesses’ testimony falls short of connecting the gunfire and Mendez’s injury, Lopez, the victim’s attorney, said he still hopes to persuade a federal judge to rule that Mendez was shot by one of the agents.

Lopez originally filed a claim for damages with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which oversees the Border Patrol. But the six-month period for approval of the claim has passed. He now plans to file a $5-million lawsuit next month in U.S. District Court.

He said that, under federal court rules, once he alleges wrongful battery on the part of the Border Patrol, the U.S. government has the burden of proving that the shooting was justified.

“We know that nobody else there fired a shot, except the two agents,” Lopez said. “We have nobody else firing a gun in the immediate vicinity, and we have nobody else claiming they were hit.”

He said that, even though rocks were thrown, the agents had three options rather than firing at Mendez: They could have fired a warning shot, ordered Mendez to halt or retreated from the area of the rock throwing.

“These are all steps taught to law enforcement officers,” Lopez said. “None were used.”