Border Agent Fires Into Van; 2 Shot

A U.S. Border Patrol agent fired three bullets into a van packed with suspected illegal aliens as the vehicle tried to speed away from a predawn 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 hit in the arm by the agent’s gunfire. Eleven people were inside the van, including a 12-year-old girl.

Neither the Border Patrol nor the Chula Vista Police Department, which was investigating the shooting, had an explanation Friday for what threat prompted the agent to fire his .357 magnum service revolver. The Border Patrol refused to identify the agent.

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

The 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, according to Ted Swofford, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in San Diego.

Francisco Ricardo Carbajal-Cuenca, 16, of Moralos Temixco, Mexico, was reported in serious condition Friday afternoon at UC San Diego Medical Center with a bullet wound to the back of the neck. Lilian Pineda Cisneros, 25, who authorities believe is from El Salvador, was shot once in the left arm and was reported to be in fair condition.

Swofford said the Border Patrol has a firearms policy that states an agent can discharge his weapon “if he feels that either himself, his partner or an innocent third party is in imminent danger.” The policy does not permit firing after a fleeing vehicle.

He said it was too early to say how the circumstances of Friday’s shooting fit the department’s guidelines. “. . . 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,” Swofford said.

However, an attorney for a Los Angeles-based migrants’ rights group said that the agency’s firearms policy “needs to be expanded and brought into the 20th Century.

“Their policy is one sentence, that’s it,” said Charles Wheeler, director of 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 roadblock and automobile trails. Their policy is thoroughly inadequate. The Border Patrol gives these officers the responsibility for drug interdiction. It’s a dangerous job. But there’s no room for cowboys.”