Luis Parra, a lawyer for Elena’s mother, told the Associated Press the Rodriguez family is “grateful to the DOJ for this first step in the pursuit of justice”.
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Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz has been charged with second degree murder in the 2012 Nogales border shooting 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez.
A demonstrator throws a stone towards the United States border fence, during a protest at a section of the fence between Mexico and the USA, on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, June 12, 2010. The results of the current indictment are a far cry from what occurred in a similar case in which a 15-year-old named Hernandez Guereca was shot across the border and killed. But his family said the boy was walking home from a basketball game with friends.
Swartz is expected to plead not guilty in an October. 9 arraignment.
The family – Elena Rodriguez’s parents, sisters and brother in Mexico and grandparents, who are USA citizens, in Arizona – remains optimistic, Parra said. “There are lots of claims of abuse where Border Patrol has not taken action”.
“Sadly, our agents and all law enforcement officers operate in a world of political agendas and armchair quarterbacking”, the agents’ union said in a statement Thursday. “But our jobs are risky and the choices we make every single day figure out if we will return property safely to our families”. We ask the public to withhold judgment about Agent Swartz while the legal process unfolds..
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit in Tucson on behalf of Rodriguez’s mother, arguing that Border Patrol has a “systemic” issue with excessive force.
An autopsy report showed he was shot around 10 times, mostly in the back.
The Mexican government said Thursday that it welcomed the decision to indict the agent. At the behest of concerned members of Congress, the Office of Inspector General is already reviewing border agencies’ use-of-force guidelines in connection with a different incident. Border Patrol policy is to treat it as a threat to agents’ lives, allowing them to respond with lethal force.
According to the Los Angeles Times, rock throwing is common along that part of the border.
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Swartz is also facing a federal civil rights lawsuit in Jose’s death. Mesa fired his weapon across the Rio Grande, striking Hernandez Guereca twice.
