US Border Agent Indicted: Mexican Teenager Killed While Walking Home, Family Claims Aaron Morrison - IBTimes
go to original September 24, 2015

Araceli Rodriguez sits in her home in Nogales, Mexico, next to a small shrine she's made to honor her son Jose Antonio, a 16-year-old who was gunned down in by the U.S. Border Patrol. (Tim Johnson/MCT)

A federal grand jury Wednesday indicted U.S. Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz with second-degree murder in the 2012 cross-border shooting death of a Mexican teenager in Arizona. An attorney for the mother of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez confirmed the news of indictment to the Associated Press.

Border Patrol officials have claimed Elena Rodriguez was among a group throwing rocks at agents from Mexico's border with Nogales, Arizona. But the boy's family contends he was walking home from a basketball game with friends and did not participate in the agents’ assault.

"The Elena Rodriguez Family is grateful to the DOJ (U.S. Department of Justice) for this first step in the pursuit of justice, and remain steadfast in their resolve to seek full transparency from the U.S. Border Patrol on behalf of Jose Antonio," Luis Parra, the family attorney, told the AP. Swartz allegedly shot the teen 10 times, according to an autopsy report.

Read the rest at IBTimes

Related: Washington State Officers Are Cleared in Shooting of Rock-Throwing Hispanic Man (The New York Times)

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