A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a 15-year-old Mexican boy after a group trying to illegally enter Texas threw rocks at officers near downtown El Paso, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.
The shooting, which happened Monday evening beneath a railroad bridge linking the two nations, drew sharp criticism from Mexico, where President Felipe Calderón said Tuesday that his government "will use all resources available to protect the rights of Mexican migrants."
Calderón rejected "the disproportionate use of force on the part on U.S. authorities."
It was the second death of a Mexican at the hands of Border Patrol officers in less than two weeks, and the case threatened to swell into a full-blown international incident as U.S. and Mexican officials traded suggestions of misconduct.
The boy's family said he was not trying to cross the border.
Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua attorney general's office, said a spent .40-caliber shell was found near the body — raising the question of whether the fatal shot was fired inside Mexico, although he didn't explicitly make that suggestion. 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 didn't enter Mexico. The official said on condition of anonymity that the video also shows four people who seem to be Mexican law enforcement officers walking across the dry but muddy bed of the Rio Grande 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 aren't authorized to cross the border without permission.
According to the U.S. authorities, Border Patrol agents on bicycle patrol were responding to a group of suspected illegal immigrants being smuggled into the U.S. near the Paso Del Norte bridge from Juárez about 6:30 p.m. Monday.
One suspected illegal immigrant was detained on the levee on the U.S. side, the FBI said. Another Border Patrol agent detained a second suspect on the concrete bank.
Other suspects ran back into Mexico and began throwing rocks, said the FBI, which is leading the investigation because it involved an assault on a federal officer.
At least one rock came from behind the agent, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said.
The agent told the rock throwers to stop and back off, but the rocks continued. The agent fired his weapon several times, hitting one person who later died, said the FBI. The agent was uninjured, Simmons said.
Chihuahua state officials released a statement Tuesday demanding a full investigation into the death of the teenager, identified as Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka.
The boy was shot once near the eye, Sandoval said. Sandoval said he couldn't comment on the video reported by the U.S. official because he didn't know anything about it.
Sandoval said investigators were questioning three teenagers who were with the victim at the time of the shooting.
The boy's sister, Rosario Hernandez, said that her brother was playing with several friends and didn't plan to cross the border.
"They say that they started firing from over there and suddenly hit him in the head," she said Monday.
His mother, Maria Guadalupe Huereka, told Milenio TV in Mexico that her son had gone to visit 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. "That's why they killed him."
She said that he ran and hid underneath one of the bridge's pillars upon hearing gunfire.
"He was a boy, and even then they killed him," she said. "I ask that they punish them. \u2026 They left me without anything."
Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said it "energetically condemns" the shooting and demanded "an expeditious and transparent investigation of the facts and, if applicable, punishment of the guilty."
"Mexico is aware of the existing risks in the region, but, according to international standards, lethal force must be used only when the lives of people are in immediate danger and not as a dissuasive measure," it said.
The department said its records indicated the number of Mexicans killed or wounded by immigration authorities rose from five in 2008 to 12 in 2009 to 17 so far this year, which isn't yet 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.
Violence in Mexico, combined with assaults on Border Patrol agents, has increased the level of apprehension agents have about their safety, Bonner said.
Less than two weeks ago, Mexican migrant Anastacio 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.
Last week, the San Diego medical examiner's office ruled that death a homicide.
