2 Aliens Injured as Border Agent Fires on Van

A U.S. Border Patrol agent fired three bullets into a van packed with illegal aliens Friday as the vehicle tried to speed away from a pre-dawn traffic stop along the shoulder of Interstate 5 in Chula Vista.

A 16-year-old Mexican boy was hit in the neck and a woman passenger was struck in the arm by the agent’s gunfire. At least 11 people were inside the van at the time of the incident, including a 12-year-old girl.

Neither the Border Patrol nor the Chula Vista Police Department, which was investigating the shooting, had any explanation Friday for what prompted the agent to fire his .357 magnum service revolver. No weapons or drugs were found inside the van, authorities said.

The shooting is the third in a week that has raised questions about the use of deadly force by area law enforcement agencies. Last Friday, two San Diego County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed an innocent man after mistaking his truck for a stolen vehicle and following him to his Vista apartment complex. On Monday, a San Diego police officer shot and killed a man wielding a cement trowel during rush-hour traffic on I-5 south of La Jolla.

“If I’ve learned anything in my 25 years as a police officer, it’s that these types of shootings come in bunches,” Chula Vista Police Lt. Dean Girdner said. “I’ve seen these types of things happen all at once, and I don’t know why.”

Friday’s Border Patrol shooting took place when a six-year veteran of the agency fired three shots into a stolen, tan 1977 Dodge van after the vehicle revved its engine and began driving away during a traffic stop, Ted Swofford, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in San Diego, said.

Agents in a marked Border Patrol sedan had begun following the van about 4 a.m., suspecting it contained illegal aliens. During the pursuit, a license check confirmed that the vehicle had been stolen about an hour earlier in the South Bay, authorities said.

After zigzagging across the northbound lanes of the freeway and making several false moves to pull over, the van finally veered to a stop on the shoulder just north of L Street. But, as one agent approached the vehicle, the driver revved the engine and started to speed off. The agent responded by firing three shots at the van.

Francisco Ricardo Carbajal-Cuenca, 16, of Moralos Temixco, Mexico, was reported in serious condition late Friday at UC San Diego Medical Center with a bullet wound to the back of the neck. Lilian Pineda Cisneros, 24, who authorities believe is from El Salvador, was shot once in the left arm above the shoulder and was in fair condition.

It was unclear late Friday who was driving the van or whether an alien smuggler--or coyote --was involved with the group. “We haven’t identified a ringleader,” said Chula Vista Police Lt. Jack Torner.

Swofford said the Border Patrol has a firearms policy that states that an agent can discharge his weapon “if he feels that either himself, his partner or an innocent third party is in imminent danger.”

He said it was too early to say whether the circumstances of Friday’s shooting fit the agency’s guidelines. “That I don’t know,” he said. “And I think it would be unfair to the agent or to the injured people involved to make any kind of judgment based on an incomplete investigation.

“But, no matter what happens, I think our firearms policy will stand the test. We’ll just have to see if the shooting falls under our criteria for a legitimate use of a firearm. Our policies are sound.”

Chula Vista police said Friday that their departmental criteria for firing at fleeing vehicles are stricter than those used by the Border Patrol.

“Our basic policy is that, if the vehicle contains somebody armed and dangerous who might be considered a threat to the community by escaping, then firing might be warranted,” Lt. Torner said. “But we don’t shoot at fleeing vehicles--unless an officer has been threatened.”

An attorney for a Los Angeles-based migrants’ rights group criticized the Border Patrol’s firearms policy, saying it “needs to be expanded and brought into the 20th Century.”

“Their firearms policy is one sentence, that’s it,” said Charles Wheeler, director of the National Immigration Law Center. “There is no elaboration beyond that, and it seems clear in this case that they violated their own policy. You’re not supposed to be out there shooting people who are driving away from you.

“There are other ways to stop a vehicle, such as roadblocks and automobile trails. Unless there’s some dire, dangerous situation, it seems totally inappropriate just to start shooting.”

Wheeler called for the agency to re-evaluate its firearms policy regardless of the outcome of the investigation.

“It’s time they got with it and matched the specific criteria developed by all other law enforcement agencies. I mean, that’s their job, to chase down suspected illegal aliens, not shoot people without provocation. This shooting incident appears to be the result of poor training and ineffectual policies.”

However, Lt. Girdner of the Chula Vista Police Department said it is too easy to “play armchair quarterback” in second-guessing officers having to rely on split-second reflexes in a potentially life-and-death situation.

“You’ve got a stolen vehicle. It’s dark and you can’t see inside the van,” he said. “There’s a real potential for danger there. And only the person facing that danger knows what he’s reacting to.”

He said the agent might have fired because he thought the van was ready to pull backward toward him instead of away.

Girdner said a four-man investigation team spent Friday interviewing the occupants of the van. He said the department will turn over the results of its investigation to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The Border Patrol refused to identify the agent involved in the shooting, but Swofford said he is a six-year veteran in his 30s who is assigned to the Chula Vista office. Swofford said he would be placed on paid administrative leave until the Chula Vista Police Department completes its investigation.

The second agent, who was driving the Border Patrol vehicle, will immediately be returned to work, Swofford said.

Six of the uninjured occupants of the van--all from El Salvador--were identified as Gardina Geisy Ramos Velasquez, 12; Rudolfo Duran, 25; Hector Eduardo Martinez, 23; Joaquin Valles Orellana, 25; Jose Antonia Castro Ochoa, 40, and Aristides Martinez Rios, 24. At least three occupants fled the scene.

Authorities gave the following account of the early-morning pursuit, which began after agents received a report that a smuggler had been seen loading migrants along the road shoulder near Coronado Avenue, several miles north of the international border:

A motorist had reportedly witnessed people climbing inside a red van in the area, known to Border Patrol agents as a prime pickup spot for undocumented aliens.

Agents initially reporting to the scene instead saw a tan van that had just entered the northbound flow of traffic at the Coronado Avenue interchange in Chula Vista. They continued looking for the red van and called a second unit to pursue the tan van, which they also suspected of carrying undocumented aliens.

The second pair of agents ran a vehicle license check on the tan van and learned from dispatchers that it had been reported stolen only a short time before. Then they turned on their emergency lights while driving behind the van, “which took several evasive actions,” Swofford said--appearing to exit on an off-ramp and then veering back onto the freeway.

After twice pulling off the road and speeding up, the van came to a stop. But, as the agent got out of the passenger side of the car and approached the van, the vehicle revved its engine and started to drive off.

The officer fired three shots. Immediately after the shooting, at least three occupants of the van ran from the scene. Two people matching their description were later apprehended by Harbor Police, but authorities could not say if they had been inside the van.