Shooting by Border Officers Kills 2 Suspects, Hurts 2

Two men were killed and two injured late Wednesday when U. S. Border Patrol officers opened fire on a group of suspected bandits along the U. S.-Mexico border, authorities said Thursday.

It was the first reported shooting this year in the often-violent border zone in San Diego, where hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants enter the United States each year through canyons, holes in the border fence and other passages.

Initial investigation indicated that the shootings were justified, said San Diego Police Lt. Phil Jarvis, head of the homicide unit, which investigates shootings by law enforcement agencies within the city limits.

The incident occurred at 10:40 p.m. near a levee that parallels the border, about three-quarters of a mile west of the San Ysidro port of entry, police said.

Believed to Be Illegal Aliens

The two dead men, who went down in a hail of gunfire, remained unidentified Thursday, according to the San Diego County coroner’s office. Both are believed to have been illegal aliens from Mexico, a spokesman said.

Another man, also unidentified, was in fair condition at UC San Diego Medical Center with gunshot wounds in his chest and buttocks, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The fourth person, identified as Enrique Cessena, 17, who was not hit by the gunfire, was released to police custody Thursday after being treated for cuts. Police said he was turned over to juvenile authorities.

The shots, six from handguns and two from shotguns, were fired by three Border Patrol officers assigned to the Border Crime Prevention Task Force, a special unit of border agents and San Diego police officers that has patrolled the border area since 1984. Two San Diego police officers present did not discharge their weapons, police said.

Account of Shooting

The Border Patrol, following its policy in such cases, declined to reveal the names of the officers involved in the shootings.

Jarvis provided this account:

The five officers, all in uniform, were kneeling in the heavily traveled levee area, observing activity below in the Tijuana River bottom, where several robberies of aliens and at least one rape had reportedly occurred recently. Four men, all armed with what appeared to be knives, approached the officers in a threatening manner, eventually prompting the officers to open fire.

The confrontation lasted a few seconds, Jarvis said. One man tried to escape and was tackled and arrested, he added.

At the scene, Jarvis said, police recovered four “stabbing weapons,” including an 8- to 10-inch knife and three instruments resembling screwdrivers that had been sharpened to points.