2 Border Agents Exonerated in Temecula Crash

Two Border Patrol agents involved in a chase that ended when a fleeing Chevrolet Suburban crashed and killed six people in Temecula complied with agency policy and should not be blamed for the crash, top immigration officials said Tuesday.

A report released by the director of internal investigations of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington largely supports previous official accounts of the June 2 accident, which provoked an angry debate about Border Patrol chases and freeway immigration checkpoints.

The crash was caused by the driver of the Suburban and an alleged immigrant smuggler who drove erratically in order to elude the agents, according to John Chase, the director of the Office of Internal Audit for the INS.

The investigation found the agents slowed their vehicle more than a mile from the high school where the crash occurred after their emergency lights and siren failed, Chase said. The Border Patrol sedan was following the speeding Suburban at about 35 to 40 m.p.h. and was about eight-tenths of a mile behind when the crash occurred at the intersection of Rancho Vista and Margarita Roads, the report said.

The driver has been charged with six counts of murder by local authorities, who so far have said the agents acted properly. Another passenger faces federal charges of alien smuggling.

“Two very sophisticated smugglers share full responsibility for this tragedy,” Chase said. “In this particular case, the agents acted extremely responsibly.”

Chase’s investigation of the Temecula incident did find “things that could have been done better,” although they had no bearing on the crash, he said.

For example, the report revealed that the pursuing agents exited the Interstate 15 freeway by driving the wrong way on an on-ramp after the Suburban exited on the off-ramp.

“That’s something I looked at carefully as a matter of public safety,” Chase said. “It’s not something I like to see these guys doing. But the driver was the man on the spot . . . and I think his judgment was sound.”

Top officials are continuing a review of Border Patrol chase policies and will probably make changes to improve supervisors’ control over pursuits, radio communications between INS units during pursuits and communication between the INS and other law enforcement agencies.

A San Diego migrant activist said Tuesday that he was disappointed but not surprised by the INS conclusions.

“They are not going to admit that they are part of the problem,” said Roberto Martinez of the American Friends Service Committee, a longtime critic of Border Patrol chase policy and tactics. “They are saying that immigration law takes priority over public safety. They are not going to back off.”

Martinez said he had also been disappointed by a federal judge’s ruling last week rejecting a lawsuit by the city of Temecula that attempted to prohibit Border Patrol chases in Southern California.

Chase’s report confirmed previous accounts, provided new information and presented the most detailed narrative of the incident so far.

The report said the stolen Suburban was first spotted by anti-smuggling INS agents in an unmarked pickup truck on stakeout at the Frontier Hotel in San Ysidro, a known staging area for immigrant smugglers, the report said.

Suspecting the Suburban was carrying illegal immigrants, the plainclothes agents followed the Suburban in hopes of being led to a safe-house for illegal immigrants in San Diego. They then asked the Border Patrol to dispatch a marked vehicle to stop the Suburban when it became clear the vehicle was heading north out of the city.

Border patrol policy requires marked units to make traffic stops. It also calls for agents to stop a chase if the agents determine an undue hazard exists.

A Border Patrol unit from the Chula Vista station was unable to catch up to the Suburban, so the attempt to intercept the Suburban did not occur until it reached the Temecula I-15 checkpoint more than 60 miles north, the report said.

The undercover agents’ efforts to direct the Border Patrol to the Suburban were hampered because of radio difficulties, Chase said. Instead of communicating directly with Border Patrol agents in vehicles, the INS agents were talking to a dispatcher at San Diego sector headquarters, who in turn communicated with the Temecula station by telephone, Chase said.

At one point, the radio operator at Temecula misidentified the INS agents as customs agents and the Suburban truck as a converted van, Chase said.

These errors did not affect the outcome of the incident, but could be avoided by having agents communicate on the same radio frequency, Chase said.

“With a little bit of training for the radio operators, we could get them talking on a common channel,” he said.

At 7:34 a.m., radio transmissions show that two Border Patrol agents from the Temecula station driving south on I-15 spotted the Suburban and the undercover pickup truck in the northbound lanes north of the checkpoint, the report said.

The Border Patrol agents waited for a break in traffic and crossed at the freeway median. At this point, interviews with the passengers of the Suburban indicate “the driver wanted to flee but the front seat passenger advised caution, as it was not yet certain the patrol unit was after them.”

The pursuing agents, who told Chase they were traveling between 80 and 85 m.p.h., realized too late that the Suburban had exited at the Rancho California Road off-ramp. They drove against traffic on the dirt shoulder of the on-ramp after the agent at the wheel “decided he could proceed safely,” with lights flashing and siren blaring, Chase said.

A traffic control officer directing traffic at the on-ramp helped the agents maneuver through the intersection, and they spotted the Suburban enter a shopping center parking lot.

The agents followed and activated their lights and siren to get their quarry’s attention. The Suburban then drove “casually” out of the parking lot and across a median, pulled a U-turn and drove erratically to Ynez Road, where it headed south.

As they left the parking lot, the agents were advised by radio that the Suburban was stolen, the report said.

The patrol unit had reached Ynez Road when its lights, siren and radio failed, the report said. Investigators later examined the car and discovered a blown fuse and a problem with an electrical connection, Chase said.

One of the agents “used his walkie-talkie and advised they were terminating the pursuit,” the report said. “They continued south on Ynez Road hoping to relay the location of the Suburban. The approximate distance from where the equipment failed to the scene of the accident is 1.7 miles.”

The Suburban, meanwhile, turned left on Rancho Vista Road and speeding, headed east. Although Chase said that speed has yet to be officially calculated, witnesses have estimated it at 80 m.p.h.

The Border Patrol sedan followed at 35 to 40 m.p.h., the report said. The agents last glimpsed the Suburban as it crested a hill before the intersection in front of Temecula Valley High School; the Suburban ran a red light and hit an Acura sedan in the intersection, killing three passengers, then rolled on its side and killed two students on the sidewalk. One of the 12 passengers in the Suburban later died of his injuries.

Chase said he found nothing to support charges by emotional Temecula residents and others who blame the Border Patrol.

“It’s a horrible situation,” he said. “These (agents) are just devastated by this as members of the community. They’ll never live it down. But they did not do anything wrong in this case.”

The Border Patrol will probably establish a policy of advising the Temecula Police and other departments when chases enter their jurisdiction “as a matter of courtesy,” Chase said. But he added: “I do not think that would have made a difference in this case.”

In another development, Chase said that INS and local investigators have become convinced that the driver of the Suburban--a Mexican national who says he is 16 and is being tried as a juvenile--is actually 19 years old.

Based on information provided by the Mexican government, Chase said, “We have a pretty good indication that he is a 19-year-old who’s done this many times in the past.”

Authorities are likely to introduce new evidence about the driver’s age.

Chase said he is aware of the driver’s claim that the smuggler sitting next to him urged him to go faster and stomped on his foot on the gas pedal just before the crash. Chase said he could not comment on that account because of the pending court case.