Survivor’s Story of Border Shooting

A survivor of a U.S. Border Patrol shooting that left two Mexican citizens dead says that an agent opened fire on him without warning and without provocation.

“I thought he was robbing me,” said Rodolfo Nunez Quiroz, a 30-year-old ex-convict and Tijuana resident who acknowledged he had served almost 4 years in California prisons on robbery convictions. “He never identified himself as a police officer. He just pulled out his pistol from his belt and began to shoot. I thought he would kill me. . . . It was a disgrace what happened to us.”

But Nunez, who was interviewed Saturday in County Jail in downtown San Diego, was unable to shed any light on the slayings of his two colleagues, who, he said, were working with him as alien smugglers that evening. He said he only heard the shooting afterward and didn’t see the two men fall.

The Mexican consul general in San Diego, Hermilo Lopez-Bassols, has charged that the two dead men were shot from behind as they attempted to flee to Mexico. The Mexican Embassy in Washington planned to present the U.S. State Department with a note of protest in connection with the incident, Lopez-Bassols said.

Nunez was shot once in the chest and once in the buttocks. He contends he was also kicked by at least one officer at the scene after the shooting; he showed a reporter extensive bruises on his left and right side that he said resulted from the alleged beatings.

Bill Robinson, a spokesman for the San Diego police, declined to comment Saturday on Nunez’s remarks, other than to note that his account “differs from the version from our homicide detectives.”

San Diego police, who are investigating the shootings that occurred on the evening of Jan. 4th, have indicated that the three Border Patrol officers opened fire after the men approached the officers in a threatening manner, with at least one brandishing what appeared to be a long knife. A machete and three screwdrivers were found at the scene, police have said.

But Nunez insisted that he was not a border bandit, as police have alleged. All three men who were shot carried screwdrivers, he acknowledged, contending that the tools were protection against thieves.

Border Patrol officials have forwarded all questions on the case to the San Diego police.

Nunez and the two dead men were shot by officers assigned to the Border Crime Prevention Unit, a 5-year-old anti-crime task force assigned to the border canyons and composed of U.S. Border Patrol agents and San Diego policemen. (Two San Diego policemen assigned to the unit did not fire their weapons.)

Some critics have questioned the unit’s effectiveness, citing the many violent confrontations that members have had with alleged border bandits. The unit has killed at least 18 people and wounded many others. Several unit members have also been shot, but none has been killed.

Small-Time Smugglers

Nunez, a native of the Mexican city of Guadalajara, described himself and his two dead colleagues as small-time polleros, or smugglers, who guided groups of aliens from the border to areas in San Ysidro, where they hook up with other smugglers who drive the aliens north. He said the polleros are usually paid $100 for every group of aliens delivered.

Nunez said he had been working as a pollero since being released on probation in June from state prison in California, where he had served 3 years and 2 months of a 6-year sentence for attempted robbery. He was sent back to Mexico after being freed, and he acknowledged violating the terms of his probation by even setting foot in the United States, where he has no legal immigration status. In 1983, Nunez said, he served 9 months of a 16-month sentence, also for robbery. A legacy of his prison time is the figure of a man enmeshed with a syringe--Nunez is an admitted former heroin user--and one of his many tattoos.

On the night of the shooting, Nunez said he saw a group of men standing not far from the border fence, just west of the port of entry at San Ysidro, in the area known as the levee.

Nunez said he was the first of the three smugglers to approach the men, who he thought were Central Americans because, “They were dressed well.” He said he could see no uniforms or badges. Officials say the unit members are in uniform and are identifiable as police officers, but the nighttime canyon darkness can make identification difficult. Nunez said he asked them in Spanish, “You want a ride to San Diego?”

At that point, Nunez said, the agent yanked his pistol out of his belt and opened fire on him, shooting from a distance of less than 10 feet. After the first bullet hit him in the chest, Nunez said the second bullet struck him in the buttocks as he was going down. Nunez said he assumed the men were robbers--until he saw them later with walkie-talkies. He said he never even pulled out his screwdriver.

“If he was a police officer, why didn’t he say, ‘Police!’?” asked Nunez, who said he has been interviewed by a San Diego police investigator about the shooting. “I would have put my hands up. I’ve been a robber, but I’ve never seen a police officer act like that. Even on television.”

Nunez said he was unconscious for a time afterward, but he says he clearly remembers at least one officer kicking him. He said he also heard an officer saying his two colleagues were dead, and he contends he was threatened by one official who told him in Spanish, “Te voy a matar .”(’I’m going to kill you.”)

Nunez was taken by Life Flight helicopter to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he was treated. He is being held on $100,000 bail on suspicion of attempted robbery, conspiracy and attempted assault.

His two dead colleagues have been identified as Sabino Silva Chavez, 24, of Ensenada and Martin Lopez, 21, of Tijuana.

A fourth suspect in the case is in the custody of juvenile authorities.