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Mexico has demanded a full investigation after a Mexican boy died after apparently being shot by a US border patrol agent.
Mexican police said the youth was killed close to the bridge linking the border cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez.
His mother, Guadelupe Huereca, denied reports he had been trying to cross the border. "He was not going to cross to El Paso, it is not true, he was here in Mexico. They killed him in Mexico," she said.
One subject, Oscar Ivan Pineda Ayala, was initially detained on the levy. Another agent arrived on his bicycle along the cement apron that forms the river bank on the US side. That agent detained a second subject, Augustin Alcaraz Reyes, but other subjects ran into Mexico and began to throw rocks at the agent.
This agent, who had the second subject detained on the ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat. However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one subject who later died.
"We energetically condemn the death of a minor near the international border crossing in Ciudad Juarez", the Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Using firearms to respond to an attack with rocks is a disproportionate use of force, particularly coming from a officials that are specially trained," it said.
"A worrying increase in the use of excessive force" showed the need for greater cooperation on border security, it added.
José Reyes Baeza, the governor of Chihuahua, the Mexican state over the border from El Paso, told a local newspaper that the boy died because of "xenophobic and racist conduct" associated with popular support in the United States for the Arizona immigration law
A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 15-year-old boy near El Paso, Texas, yesterday after rocks were thrown at him.
Originally posted by Asktheanimals
As for using rocks as weapons in the bible, yes, they used them - in slingshots. They sure as heck didn't throw them. that was a poor comparison.
[edit on 8-6-2010 by Asktheanimals]
T.J. Bonner, who heads a union representing Border Patrol agents, told the Associated Press that it's appropriate to answer rocks with bullets. "It is a deadly force encounter," he said. "One that justifies the use of deadly force."
Originally posted by Miraj
reply to post by LadySkadi
Rocks can be very deadly. All it takes is a hit with the right amount of force on the right part of the head. And considering it was a group throwing rocks its even more so.
There's a reason why they stoned people to death in the old testament; It killed, it didn't leave you with weapons to clean and it was painful.