A Border Patrol agent in Nogales, Arizona fired
at least 14 shots from his assault rifle into Nogales, Sonora on the night of
October 10. Jose Antonio was hit twice
in the head and four times in the chest.
The Border Patrol claims the agent fired
in self-defense after rocks were thrown at agents who were pursuing two drug
smugglers. Their brief statement issued
the following day notes that the agent “discharged his service weapon” and “one
of the suspects appeared to have been hit.”
“They ripped out a part of my soul” said
Araceli, Jose Antonio’s mother, during a gathering of border organizations in
Ciudad Juarez. “He was and is part of my
life. I still hear his voice. My son had a lot of dreams. Why do they have to kill innocent
people?”
I moved back to Nogales ten days after
Jose Antonio was killed and I’ve been drawn to that site several times. I went there the day after I returned here
and my last visit was two days ago. I’ve
also walked along the U.S. side of the border wall near where the shots were
fired.
Jose Antonio was killed on the sidewalk in
front of Dr. Luis Contreras’ home and clinic on International Street. The agent placed the barrel of his rifle
between the steel beams of the border wall and shot down into Nogales, Sonora. That section of the wall is about 20 feet
high and set on a hill that is 25 feet above the street.
The initial shots were fired from at least
100 feet away and eight bullets hit the corner of the building. The final shots were fired from about 50 feet
away and three bullets hit that side of the building where Jose Antonio died. It would have been extremely difficult to
throw a rock from there and hit the agent who fired all those shots.
The killing took place approximately 100
yards from a Border Patrol surveillance tower.
The video that was recorded by the cameras that night has not been
released to the public or to Jose Antonio’s family.
It would appear that the Border Patrol is
able to get away with murder because the victim was Mexican. Would the U.S. government show more concern
if an agent on the northern border had killed a 16-year-old Canadian, or if the
roles were reversed and Jose Antonio had shot into the United States and killed
someone there?
“Why are they able to go out and kill
here?” asked Araceli. “Why are they
covering them up? I want to know who
they are. I want them arrested and I
want justice.”
“There have been very many young people,
teenagers, who have been killed at the border” said Navi Pillay, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“The reports reaching me are that there has been excessive force by the
U.S. border patrols.”
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| Araceli with a photo of her son |
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| Tito and Jeannette standing where Jose Antonio died (circles were drawn around the bullet holes) |
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| The first shots were fired from the border wall above the car parked in the middle and the surveillance tower is on the left |
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| The final shots were fired from that part of the wall |
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