Family Criticizes Shooting of Father of 8 from Mexico : Death: Gardener was shot on Christmas when he charged at deputies with shovel, sheriff says.

Ezequiel Tinajero Vazquez, a 60-year-old gardener from Tecate, Mexico, used a homemade shovel for many years to earn his living. On Christmas Day, the shovel cost him his life.

Two San Diego County sheriff’s deputies shot Tinajero six times on a mountain road near the U.S-Mexico border crossing at Tecate when he charged at them with the shovel, authorities said. The deputies said they stopped Tinajero, described by friends and family as a shy man who might have had emotional problems, because he was acting strangely and menacing passing cars.

Family members find it hard to believe that the elderly man, 5-foot-3 inches tall and weighing 133 pounds, could have posed such a threat that the deputies had to shoot him.

“They were two policemen,” said Tinajero’s sister, 65-year-old Sara Carranza of Potrero, a rural mountain community about 45 miles east of San Diego and 2 miles north of Tecate. “He was one man, he was old, he was weak. They did not have to kill him.”

The father of eight had crossed the border illegally on foot from Tecate and was heading to visit his sister’s house for the first time, a walk he had dreamed of making, relatives said.

San Diego County Sheriff Jim Roache said Friday that he is convinced the deputies acted correctly. The deputies fired only when Tinajero charged them, ignoring warnings in Spanish and English, and had no choice because their batons were insufficient against the 5-foot-long shovel, Roache said.

“The deputies exercised diligence, they were prudent, they attempted to avoid a violent confrontation in every manner available to them,” Roache said. “Even if it’s a 60-year old man with a shovel, if he hits you upside your head, he can kill you.”

The story of Tinajero’s death joins the list of controversial shootings by law enforcement officers. The Mexican consulate in San Diego this week asked Roache to look into the matter. The Sheriff Department’s homicide unit is conducting a routine investigation, as it does in all deputy-involved shootings.

Tinajero died before he could do what he had talked about doing for years: visit his sister, who lived a world away, 10 miles from his home.

In one world, a few miles north of the border, was Sara Carranza and her family, who had risen from immigrant farm-worker poverty to middle-class comfort in East San Diego County.

Just on the other side of the border were the Tinajeros, simple people who remained in the El Paraiso slum of Tecate, a border city of 80,000 people.

Sara Carranza, a native of rural Michoacan, came to the United States 20 years ago after migrating to Tecate. Her husband, Margarito, worked in the celery and strawberry fields of Ventura County and in a plant nursery in San Diego County.

Tinajero, Carranza’s brother, stayed behind in Tecate with his family and worked as an itinerant gardener. He did not drive. It was common to see him walking long distances to work, carrying his shovel and a water bottle, and wearing a baseball-style cap, according to friends and family.

Eight years ago, the Carranzas retired and built themselves a big stucco house on 4 acres in Potrero. Two stone lions flank the iron front gate.

Some of the 11 Carranza children--now comfortable in speaking English, with families of their own and solid jobs in construction, photography and factories--live in the house. Others live elsewhere in Southern California. All of them remained close to the Tinajeros, making frequent visits to the old house in Tecate without running water that served as a mirror of the past.

“My mother tried to help (Tinajero) out however she could, but he did not want help,” said Carranza’s daughter, Lupe.”He didn’t want money.”

Tinajero had never seen his sister’s house in Potrero because he did not have a passport and could not obtain a visa, relatives said. He cherished memories of his only trip to the United States years ago when the Carranzas lived in Oxnard, and often told his sister he wanted to visit her new house and help her with her lawn.

Sara Carranza discouraged the idea, and remained vague about where she lived because she did not want him to attempt the illegal crossing through the mountainous border area.

“I told him, ‘You are not going to make it walking, don’t try it,’ ” Carranza said.

But, early on the morning of Dec. 24, Tinajero announced that he planned to spend the holiday with his sister, relatives said. He set off from Tecate carrying the shovel and extra clothes.

Tinajero’s family said they were surprised but not shocked by the abrupt decision. He was very close to his sister and had been despondent about the death of a son in a car crash eight months ago. His behavior was also affected in recent years from what Luis Briseno Villasenor, a longtime friend, described as apparent emotional problems, a “shock of the nerves.”

“He had had problems with his nerves,” said Briseno, a chunky, white-haired man who was interviewed outside Tinajero’s wake at a nondescript Tecate funeral home Thursday. “But he was never aggressive.”

As Tinajero’s widow Maria Carmen sobbed in the pews, her burly son rocking the 61-year old woman in his arms, daughter Elva Tinajero said her father appeared normal before he left.

“He wanted to spend Christmas with his sister,” she said. “And he didn’t spend it with anyone.”

Tinajero’s whereabouts for the next 24 hours are unclear. He may have spent the night in the mountains, and may have wandered in search of his sister’s house because he did not have the address, relatives said.

Sheriff’s Lt. John Tenwolde said passers-by reported seeing Tinajero walking near California 94 near Potrero on Christmas Day. Deputy William C. Smith, 39, a 10-year veteran, saw Tinajero on Barrett Lake Road at 11:16 a.m. and noticed him making chopping motions at passing cars with a shovel, according to authorities.

At 12:08 p.m., Smith saw Tinajero again, this time walking eastbound on 94, and decided to call for a backup because Tinajero continued to make chopping motions at cars and appeared mentally unstable, deputies said. Deputy Gary W. Vanderford, 34, a 12-year veteran, responded.

According to the official account, the deputies got out of their cars and called for Tinajero to stop. He kept walking, then turned several times and screamed incoherently. The deputies said they followed him to a bridge, where he turned and advanced, menacing them with the shovel as the deputies backed away and ordered him to halt. One deputy spoke in Spanish, Roache said.

Officials said Tinajero lunged and chopped at the retreating deputies with the shovel, then rushed them. When he was 4 to 8 feet away with the shovel raised as if to strike, the deputies fired their 9-millimeter handguns, authorities said.

Tinajero suffered bullet wounds in the left chest, lower right chest, right arm, left elbow, left hand and right thigh, said Charlotte Cunningham of the county medical examiner’s office. He died at the scene, Tenwolde said, about 5 miles from his sister’s house. There were no witnesses, deputies said.

The incident was first reported as the death of an unidentified transient, because Tinajero carried no documents and was wearing several layers of old clothes. But the Carranzas immediately feared it was him because of the shovel. They contacted authorities and confirmed their fears the next day.

The family said it has been contacted by lawyers and might consider legal action against the Sheriff’s Department.

“We are all very angry,” said Elva Tinajero. “We want the people who did it to be punished.”

Although relatives said the deputies should have tried non-lethal means to stop Tinajero, such as tear gas or shooting for the legs, sheriff’s officials said that is unrealistic. The deputies were not carrying Mace or a stun-gun, Roache said. They are trained to shoot for the torso because it is difficult and ineffective to shoot at a charging suspect’s legs, he said.

“The only options they had were their hands and the use of a baton,” Roache said. “That’s a wooden instrument, 2 feet long and about an inch in diameter and would not be effective against someone swinging a 5-foot shovel. . . . They only acted when in imminent danger. Although unfortunately tragic and fatal, their actions were not excessive.”

Investigators are still trying to determine whether Tinajero had a history of mental problems, whether there was alcohol and drugs in his system and where he spent the hours between the time he left his home and his death in the United States.