US Border Agent Who Shot Into Mexico, Killed Teen, Wants Case Dismissed Astrid Galvan - The Associated Press
go to original May 27, 2015

Agent who shot into Mexico, killed teen wants case dismissed (KGUN9)

A federal judge is considering throwing out a civil rights lawsuit against a U.S. Border Patrol agent who fatally shot a teenager across the U.S.-Mexico border on grounds that the boy was in Mexico at the time and therefore wasn't protected by the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Court Judge Raner C. Collins heard arguments in the motion-to-dismiss hearing on Tuesday in Tucson.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in Tucson against agent Lonnie Swartz. It sued on behalf of Araceli Rodriguez, the mother of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.

The teen was in Nogales, Sonora, near the tall, steel fence that divides the United States and Mexico when Swartz shot him from Nogales, Arizona, on Oct. 10, 2012. An autopsy showed Elena Rodriguez was shot about 10 times.

The Border Patrol has said Elena Rodriguez was among a group of people throwing rocks at agents across the border, endangering their lives.

The ACLU says the shooting was another example of border agents using excessive force without consequences. Araceli Rodriguez says her son was walking home from playing basketball with friends and never had a rock or any other weapon.

Swartz has not been charged, and an investigation by the FBI is ongoing. He is still an agent with the Border Patrol, his attorney, Sean Chapman, said.

Chapman declined to comment after the Tuesday hearing. He told Collins during oral arguments that constitutional protections did not extend to Elena Rodriguez.

Read the rest at NBC News

Photo: Curt Prendergast

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