You WANT me on that wall! You NEED me on that wall!

[bpwallace49]

Mexico anger high as US Border Patrol kills teen

 

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Mexicans are seething over the second death of a countryman at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents in two weeks, an incident near downtown El Paso that is threatening to escalate tensions over migrant issues.

 

U.S. authorities said Tuesday a Border Patrol agent was defending himself and colleagues when he fatally shot the 15-year-old as officers came under a barrage of big stones while trying to detain illegal immigrants on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande.

 

About 30 relatives and friends gathered late Tuesday to mourn Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka, whose shooting Monday evening came along the border with Texas. He died on the Mexican side of the river.

 

"Damn them! Damn them!" sobbed Rosario Hernandez, sister of the dead teenager, at a wake in the family's two-room adobe house on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez.

 

Preliminary reports on the incident indicated that U.S. officers on bicycle patrol "were assaulted with rocks by an unknown number of people," Border Patrol Special Operations Supervisor Ramiro Cordero said Tuesday.

 

"During the assault at least one agent discharged his firearm," he said. "The agent is currently on administrative leave. A thorough, multi-agency investigation is currently ongoing."

 

The shooting happened beneath a railroad bridge linking the two nations, and late Tuesday night a banner appeared on the bridge that said in English: "U.S. Border Patrol we worry about the violence in Mex and murders and now you. Viva Mexico!"

 

Less than two weeks ago, Mexican migrant Anastasio Hernandez, 32, died after a Customs and Border Protection officer shocked him with a stun gun at the San Ysidro border crossing that separates San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. The San Diego medical examiner's office ruled that death a homicide.

 

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Tuesday that his government "will use all resources available to protect the rights of Mexican migrants."

 

The government "reiterates its rejection to the disproportionate use of force on the part on U.S. authorities on the border with Mexico," the president added in a statement.

 

On an unpaved street, gathered around Hernandez's gray metal casket, the teen's family called for justice.

 

"There is a God, so why would I want vengeance if no one will return him to me. They killed my little boy and the only thing I ask is for the law" to be applied, said the boy's father, Jesus Hernandez.

 

His mother was less hopeful. "May God forgive them because I know nothing will happen" to them, Maria Guadalupe Huereka said.

 

Above the casket was a photo of the youth wearing his soccer uniform and his junior high school grade cards, which showed A's and B's.

 

His mother said he was a good student who never got in trouble. He was the youngest of five children, played on two soccer teams and had just finished junior high school, she said.

 

The case took a testy turn when U.S. and Mexican officials traded suggestions of misconduct in the incident.

 

Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state Attorney General's office, said a spent .40-caliber shell casing was found near the body — raising the question of whether the fatal shot was fired inside Mexico, although he did not explicitly make that allegation. That would violate the rules for Border Patrol agents, who are supposed to stay on the U.S. side of the border.

 

A U.S. official, meanwhile, said video shows the Border Patrol agent did not enter Mexico.

 

The official, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name, said the video also shows what seem to be four Mexican law enforcement officers driving to the edge of the dry but muddy bed of the Rio Grande, walking across to the U.S. side, picking up an undetermined object and returning to Mexico near the area where the boy's body was. Like their U.S. counterparts, Mexican law officers are not authorized to cross the border without permission.

 

According to the FBI, Border Patrol agents were responding to a group of suspected illegal immigrants being smuggled into the U.S. near the Paso Del Norte bridge, across from Ciudad Juarez around 6:30 p.m. Monday.

 

One suspected illegal immigrant was detained on the levee on the U.S. side, the FBI said in a statement. Another Border Patrol agent arrived on the concrete bank where the now-dry, 33-foot (10-meter) wide Rio Grande is, and detained a second person. Other suspects ran back into Mexico and began throwing rocks, the FBI said.

 

At least one rock came from behind the agent, who was kneeling beside a suspected illegal immigrant whom he had prone on the ground, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said.

 

The agent told the rock throwers to stop and back off, but they continued. The agent fired his weapon several times, hitting one who later died, said the FBI, which is leading the investigation because it involved an assault on a federal officer. The agent was not injured, Simmons said.

 

Chihuahua state officials released a statement demanding a full investigation into the death.

 

The boy was shot once near the eye, Sandoval said. Authorities were still investigating the bullet's trajectory, he said.

 

Sandoval said he couldn't comment on the video reported by the U.S. official because he didn't know anything about it. "I am unaware about those hypotheses," he said.

 

Sandoval said Mexican investigators were questioning three teenagers who were with the victim at the time of the shooting.

 

The boy's sister, Rosario, told Associated Press Television News that her brother was playing with several friends and did not plan to cross the border.

 

"They say that they started firing from over there and suddenly hit him in the head," she said.

 

The boy's mother said he had gone to eat with his brother, who handles luggage at a border customs office. While there, he met up with a group of friends and they decided to hang out by the river, she said.

 

"That was his mistake, to have gone to the river," she said in an interview with Mexico's Milenio TV. "That's why they killed him."

 

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said its records indicate the number of Mexicans killed or wounded by U.S. immigration authorities rose from five in 2008 to 12 in 2009 to 17 so far this year, which is not half over.

 

T.J. Bonner, president of the union representing Border Patrol agents, said rock throwing aimed at Border Patrol agents is common and capable of causing serious injury.

 

"It is a deadly force encounter, one that justifies the use of deadly force," Bonner said.

 

How dumb are you to throw rocks at guys armed with guns? Especially when 17 people have been killed by border patrol officials already this year?

[bpwallace49]

Witnesses say killed Mexican teen wasn't throwing rocks at Border Patrol agent

 

Eyewitness accounts are at odds with an official U.S. characterization of the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez by a Border Patrol officer on Monday.

 

El Paso FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said the Border Patrol officer shot Hernandez, who had entered the U.S. illegally, after he and a group of Mexican teens surrounded the agent and threw rocks at him. But two witnesses to the incident told the Wall Street Journal's Nicholas Casey that Hernandez was standing on the Mexican side of the border with his hands up and had not thrown rocks at the agent.

 

U.S. national Bobbie McDow said she watched the group of teenagers from the middle of the Santa Fe Bridge, which spans the border and has two security checkpoints at either side. The teens, who had no weapons or backpacks, were playing a "cat and mouse game" McDow told the Journal, by trying to make it to the U.S. side and back to Mexico without being caught.

 

McDow said that two Border Patrol agents saw the group and chased them—and that one of them, riding a bicycle, caught one of the suspects and pinned him down. She said that the same agent then fired shots into Mexico, where the other boys had run. McDow said one of the teens had thrown rocks at the agent, but that Hernandez hadn't.

 

McDow's husband, Raul Flores, told the Journal that he'd seen Hernandez emerge from behind a pillar on the Mexican side of the border with his hands up before the agent shot him, first in the shoulder and then in the head.

 

"They had no justification," Elias Jose Antonio González, a family friend of the Hernandez boy, told the Journal. "He was not a drug trafficker. He was the hope of this family."

 

In the FBI's account, the teens had surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him after he told them to stop and retreat—and at that point, the feds say, he used his gun.

 

Border Patrol agents in El Paso have faced 29 rock-throwing attacks since October, the agency told The El Paso Times. T.J. Bonner, head of an advocacy group for Border Patrol officers, told the paper that attacks in general on agents are on the rise.

 

Since the agent was standing on U.S. soil when he killed Hernandez on the Mexican side of the border, figuring out jurisdiction in the case could be tricky. The FBI and Mexican authorities are investigating the incident.

 

—Liz Goodwin is a national affairs writer for Yahoo! News

 

Or maybe he wasnt throwing rocks?

 

Yep . . i am sure this will end well . . . .

[dmarc117]

and they also enjoy playing real life frogger too.

[SEC=UGA]

The little f'ers circle him and start throwing rocks, they should be shot.

[bpwallace49]

The little f'ers circle him and start throwing rocks, they should be shot.

 

Even the kid that wasnt throwing rocks and had his hands up in surrender and that was on the Mexico side of the border?

[SEC=UGA]

Even the kid that wasnt throwing rocks and had his hands up in surrender and that was on the Mexico side of the border?

 

You can take the word of some dirty Mexican and some woman that goes back and forth between the US and Mexico every day... I'm believing the agent. Tell the little f'ers to stop messing w. the border patrol and diaper dirt like this won't happen. Further, I say we shoot em all if they're going back and forth across the border "playing cat and mouse games."

 

I'm sick of this diaper dirt. They have absolutely no respect for the borders, no respect for our laws, and feel that they are entitled to be able to come over here and use our public facilities. Mexico would put up with Americans doing this for about 5 minutes and then raise holy hell about it. The only reason that the Mexican govt. makes a big deal about this is that billions of dollars are put into the Mexican economy by the illegals here in the US. And this a perfect situation to illustrate the draconian tactics of the evil Americans and they feel that this may make us back off of our stance of putting more people and checkpoints on the border. Hey, Calderon, and the rest of you mfer's over there that have turned your country into a diaper dirthole, f off, I'm sick of hearing your yammering about this stuff. Why don't we talk about what you guys do to Guatamalans that enter Mexico illegally, or Salvadorians, or Nicaraguans.

[bpwallace49]

All I am saying is that there are two sides to the story, and they sure dont jibe . .

 

If he was surrounded, then how was the kid shot on the MEXICAN side of the border and the agent was on the American side?

 

I just wish if they were using deadly force that the would try to shoot drug smugglers instead of unarmed kids. The real criminals can all be shot, and both countries wouldnt care . . . And W . .T . . .F? They get Schwinn bikes instead of ATVs?

[AtomicCEO]

Why don't we talk about what you guys do to Guatamalans that enter Mexico illegally, or Salvadorians, or Nicaraguans.

 

Because "We're slightly better than the worst countries in the world" isn't something to be proud of.

 

I'd bet that discharging your firearm as a border patrol agent in a situation like that is probably against normal procedures. Even if you feel it may have been justified because the dirty wetbacks were asking for it... it seems like this may not really be the situation we want to proudly hang the star spangled banner on.

[Kid Cid]

A crappy situation all around. I feel for the Border Patrol agents though. What, you supposed to just let yourself get pelted with rocks? Run and hide? It sucks that a kid gets shot but they shouldn't have been poking a bees nest with a stick and then cry when the bee stings them.

[dmarc117]

A crappy situation all around. I feel for the Border Patrol agents though. What, you supposed to just let yourself get pelted with rocks? Run and hide? It sucks that a kid gets shot but they shouldn't have been poking a bees nest with a stick and then cry when the bee stings them.

 

 

+1

 

i cant imagine being a cop or border patrol agent. you have no idea if the next stop or person you meet will want to kill you. split second decisions sometimes end up bad. dont put yourself in that situation with an officer.

[Caveman_Nick]

We should just give all of the Border Patrol agents red capes and teach them to wave the capes around while yelling 'Ole!' We can name it the "Atomic at the rest stop" policy

[Azazello1313]

All I am saying is that there are two sides to the story

 

and yet, it seems like everyone in this tread has definite knee-jerk opinions about what happened and who is in the wrong.

 

edit: ok, not "everyone". just atomic.

Edited June 9, 2010 by Azazello1313

[bpwallace49]

and yet, it seems like everyone in this tread has definite knee-jerk opinions about what happened and who is in the wrong.

 

edit: ok, not "everyone". just atomic.

 

I am sure more info will come out . . and "maybe" the truth will even be part of it.

 

Looks like a bad situation all around. Maybe the agent used excessive force, maybe he didnt. Maybe the kid was throwing rocks, maybe he wasnt. Bottom line is no matter what happened, provoking border agents is pretty fkn stupid . . and hanging around with kids that do is equally stupid.

 

it would also be nice if they had more than mountain bikes to try and patrol an indefensible border . . .

[Ursa Majoris]

I dunno, I learned very early on that baiting policemen and other armed uniformed people wasn't all that prudent. Even if you don't end up dead, they can make life really inconvenient.

 

SEC makes an interesting and very often ignored point about the way Mexico's southern end behaves against illegal border crossers but bleats and cries at the northern end when the shoe is on the other foot.

[SEC=UGA]

Because "We're slightly better than the worst countries in the world" isn't something to be proud of.

 

I'd bet that discharging your firearm as a border patrol agent in a situation like that is probably against normal procedures. Even if you feel it may have been justified because the dirty wetbacks were asking for it... it seems like this may not really be the situation we want to proudly hang the star spangled banner on.

 

The head of the Union states that these rock throwing incidents are increasing dramatically and that patrolmen are allowed to discharge their firearm if the are in danger of bodily harm.

 

I'm not proudly hanging the star spangled banner on it, I'm simply stating that I'm tired of hearing the Mexican government compalining about what the US is doing to Mexican citizens, especially considering the fact that its citizens wouldn't have been in the given position that they are in if they ahdn't have illegally crossed the US border. Further, the reactions of these agents is directly attributable to the actions of the Mexicans. If there weren't a history of assaults on border agents these episodes would not occur. In this case, yes, I'm blaming the "victim", not necesarilly directly, but as a symbol of what his fellow country men have spawned.

 

We are better, but not because we allow people willy nilly to cross our border illegally and assault our federal agents who are simply out their doing their job. If allowing a fedral agent to get assaulted makes us better then you could make an argument that it is okay for me to stand there and do nothing while my wife is getting beaten by some street thug. That ain't gonna happen, I will be drawing down on his ass.

[i_am_the_swammi]

story keeps getting more interesting....seems now Mexican patrol officers pointed their weapons at US officials who were inevestigating the incident:

 

.FBI: Mexicans chased away US agents after shooting

 

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and OLIVIA TORRES, Associated Press Writers Christopher Sherman And Olivia Torres, Associated Press Writers – 1 min ago

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Pointing their rifles, Mexican security forces chased away U.S. authorities investigating the shooting of a 15-year-old Mexican by a U.S. Border Patrol agent on the banks of the Rio Grande, the FBI and witnesses told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

 

The killing of the Mexican by U.S. authorities — the second in less than two weeks — has exposed the distrust between the two countries that lies just below the surface, and has enraged Mexicans who see the death of the boy on Mexican soil as an act of murder.

 

Shortly after the boy was shot, Mexican soldiers arrived at the scene and pointed their guns at the Border Patrol agents across the riverbank while bystanders screamed insults and hurled rocks and firecrackers, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said. She said the agents were forced to withdraw.

 

"It pretty quickly got very intense over on the Mexican side," she said, adding that FBI agents showed up later and resumed the investigation, even as Mexican authorities pointed guns at them from across the river.

 

A relative of the dead boy who had been playing with him told the AP that the Mexicans — who he described as federal police, not soldiers — pointed their guns only when the Americans waded into the mud in an apparent attempt to cross into Mexico.

 

The Mexican authorities accused the Americans of trying to recover evidence from Mexican soil and threatened to kill them if they crossed the border, prompting both sides to draw their guns, said the 16-year-old boy who asked not to be further identified for fear of reprisal.

 

The confrontation occurred Monday night over the body of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka, who died of his wounds beside the column of a railroad bridge connecting Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas.

 

Each government has made veiled accusations suggesting misconduct on the part of the other's law enforcement agents.

 

Hernandez was found 20 feet (six meters) into Mexico, and an autopsy revealed that the fatal shot was fired at a relatively close range, according to Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office. Mexican authorities said a .40 caliber shell casing was found near the body, suggesting that the Border Patrol agent might have crossed into Mexico to shoot the boy.

 

That would violate the rules for Border Patrol agents, who are supposed to stay on the U.S. side — and could open the agent to a Mexican homicide prosecution.

 

A U.S. official close to the investigation told the AP that authorities have a video showing that the Border Patrol agent did not cross into Mexico. In fact, the official said, the video shows what appear to be members of Mexican law enforcement crossing onto the U.S. side, picking something up and returning to Mexico. The official was not cleared to speak about the video and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

 

Alejandro Pariente, Chihuahua state's regional deputy attorney general, said the U.S. Border Patrol has given him video which he is reviewing. He declined to describe it except to say that it has sped up the investigation.

 

The two killings have provoked anger in Mexico like no other recent controversy surrounding immigration, including Arizona's new law making it a state crime to be an illegal immigrant and President Obama's decision to send the National Guard to the border.

[BillyBalata]

FBI: Mexicans chased away US agents after shooting

 

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and OLIVIA TORRES, Associated Press Writers Christopher Sherman And Olivia Torres, Associated Press Writers – 1 min ago

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Pointing their rifles, Mexican security forces chased away U.S. authorities investigating the shooting of a 15-year-old Mexican by a U.S. Border Patrol agent on the banks of the Rio Grande, the FBI and witnesses told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

 

The killing of the Mexican by U.S. authorities — the second in less than two weeks — has exposed the distrust between the two countries that lies just below the surface, and has enraged Mexicans who see the death of the boy on Mexican soil as an act of murder.

 

Shortly after the boy was shot, Mexican soldiers arrived at the scene and pointed their guns at the Border Patrol agents across the riverbank while bystanders screamed insults and hurled rocks and firecrackers, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said. She said the agents were forced to withdraw.

 

"It pretty quickly got very intense over on the Mexican side," she said, adding that FBI agents showed up later and resumed the investigation, even as Mexican authorities pointed guns at them from across the river.

 

A relative of the dead boy who had been playing with him told the AP that the Mexicans — who he described as federal police, not soldiers — pointed their guns only when the Americans waded into the mud in an apparent attempt to cross into Mexico.

 

The Mexican authorities accused the Americans of trying to recover evidence from Mexican soil and threatened to kill them if they crossed the border, prompting both sides to draw their guns, said the 16-year-old boy who asked not to be further identified for fear of reprisal.

 

The confrontation occurred Monday night over the body of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka, who died of his wounds beside the column of a railroad bridge connecting Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas.

 

Each government has made veiled accusations suggesting misconduct on the part of the other's law enforcement agents.

 

Hernandez was found 20 feet (six meters) into Mexico, and an autopsy revealed that the fatal shot was fired at a relatively close range, according to Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office. Mexican authorities said a .40 caliber shell casing was found near the body, suggesting that the Border Patrol agent might have crossed into Mexico to shoot the boy.

 

That would violate the rules for Border Patrol agents, who are supposed to stay on the U.S. side — and could open the agent to a Mexican homicide prosecution.

 

A U.S. official close to the investigation told the AP that authorities have a video showing that the Border Patrol agent did not cross into Mexico. In fact, the official said, the video shows what appear to be members of Mexican law enforcement crossing onto the U.S. side, picking something up and returning to Mexico. The official was not cleared to speak about the video and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

 

Alejandro Pariente, Chihuahua state's regional deputy attorney general, said the U.S. Border Patrol has given him video which he is reviewing. He declined to describe it except to say that it has sped up the investigation.

 

The two killings have provoked anger in Mexico like no other recent controversy surrounding immigration, including Arizona's new law making it a state crime to be an illegal immigrant and President Obama's decision to send the National Guard to the border.

[bpwallace49]

The kid was shot in the head . . . pretty sure he dropped when he was shot.

 

This will be very interesting so see how this incident plays out. And it wont be good for either side. . . .

[Scooby]

I just like all your movie quotes

that's all I got to say about that!

[bpwallace49]

I just like all your movie quotes

that's all I got to say about that!

 

I wish i had a good movie quote for this one . . . the LAST thing anyone needs is escalating violence between the Mexican and US border patrols and armed police/federales/fill in the blank. This will not end well . . . .

[Scooby]

yes, u are right about that BP

[buddahj]

Never bring rocks to a gun fight.

[tosberg34]

I wish i had a good movie quote for this one . . . the LAST thing anyone needs is escalating violence between the Mexican and US border patrols and armed police/federales/fill in the blank. This will not end well . . . .

 

How about:

 

What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach, so you get what we had here last week which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. And I don't like it any more than you men.

 

Maybe we need to send our troops to the border now? Does anyone in Washington get it yet?

Edited June 10, 2010 by tosberg34

[bpwallace49]

.[/i]

 

Maybe we need to send our troops to the border now? Does anyone in Washington get it yet?

 

Great idea! Lets pull them out of Iraq and Afghanistan pronto . . . hell, lets use the rest of the unspent stimulus money to build a nice big berlin-style wall . .

[SEC=UGA]

Great idea! Lets pull them out of Iraq and Afghanistan pronto . . . hell, lets use the rest of the unspent stimulus money to build a nice big berlin-style wall . .

 

There are plenty enough troops here, no need to bring them back from those two fronts, though, I wouldn't mind pulling them out of Cuba.

 

In regard to the Berlin style wall, I'm in favor of that, though the Berlin wall was used to keep people in, not out.

Edited June 10, 2010 by SEC=UGA