Police Seek Identity in Slaying at Border

San Diego police Monday sought to identify a Mexican man who was shot to death after he brandished a construction nail gun at officers patrolling remote canyons just north of the border over the weekend.

The man, whom police were trying to identify through fingerprint records, approached the three San Diego police officers and one U.S. Border Patrol agent from behind about 11 p.m. Saturday and threatened them in Spanish, police Lt. John Welter said.

The officers wheeled around, shined their flashlights on the man and his companion and saw what appeared to be a sawed-off shotgun, Welter said. The three officers each fired their 9-millimeter handguns three or four times, hitting the armed man several times. He died at the scene.

Welter said the suspect threatened the officers and held the gun with both hands, “pointing it at them in a threatening manner.”

The weapon turned out to be an unloaded pistol grip “stud” gun used to shoot nails. Neither the officers nor the gunman’s companion, who was unarmed, were injured, Welter said.

The Border Patrol agent did not fire his gun, but moved to arrest the companion, who immediately held up his hands in surrender, Welter said. That man was identified Monday as Jose Luis Quiroz Espinoza, 22, of Tijuana.

The team of four officers had been the last of three groups patrolling the canyons Saturday night. The other two teams were about 50 yards ahead of the rear team when the third group was accosted, Welter said. Altogether, the teams consisted of six San Diego officers (members of the department’s Border Crime Intervention Unit) and two Border Patrol officers. The unit tries to prevent bandits from preying on migrants making their way north through the secluded hills.

A group that monitors police border activity said it planned to investigate the shooting to determine whether it was justified.

“Why would two young men confront eight armed agents in uniform? It would be suicide,” said Roberto Martinez, director of the San Diego chapter of the American Friends Service Committee. Martinez said the border unit and its predecessors have a violent history and that his group is suspicious of most border shootings.

“All we have is the official version,” Martinez said. “We don’t have the other side, which sometimes uncovers something different than the official version.

“Did they (the officers) identify themselves?” he asked. “Did they order in Spanish for these people to drop the weapon? Did they give this guy a chance to drop what was in his hand? This is overkill, obviously.”

The officers didn’t get a chance to say anything, Welter responded. “They considered themselves at the time to be in immediate danger. This suspect was immediately threatening their lives with a weapon.”

The Border Patrol officer remained unidentified Monday. The San Diego officers were identified as Chad Houseman, 31; Ray Valentin, 27, and Ed Martin, 35, all six-year veterans of the department.

Welter said it was very dark in the canyon. Though the men were in uniform, with their weapons holstered, and the suspect was only 10 to 15 feet away, he may not have recognized them as armed officers, authorities said. He probably would not have seen their badges from the left rear angle from which he approached them, Welter said.

Welter said Quiroz said later that he had thought the officers were another group of migrants that he and the suspect, whom he said he didn’t know, were trying to catch up with. Quiroz said he had met the suspect coming over the border and did not know he was armed.

Quiroz was initially arrested for investigation of attempted robbery, but was turned over to the Border Patrol early Sunday after telling police he had nothing to do with the threats against the officers. The Border Patrol released Quiroz over the border later Sunday.

Martinez said he hopes to contact Quiroz in Tijuana.

Miguel Escobar, a spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Diego, said the consulate will monitor the case but does “not have a reason not to believe the official version” of the shooting.

Welter said rapes, robberies and homicides along the border have been drastically reduced since the unit began in 1990, along with a similar Mexican unit.

“Over past year or better, we’ve had numerous robberies involving a suspect with a sawed-off shotgun,” Lt. Lee Vaughn of the border unit said. “Whether or not it’s the same person, we have no idea at this time.”

Border Patrol spokesman Steve Kean said there were nine homicides along the border in 1990 and one last year. Those figures are for bandit or smuggling-related crimes only, and do not include police actions or crimes against migrants that are later determined to be hate crimes.