After the US Department of Justice closed investigations into the shooting deaths of Carlos LaMadrid and Ramses Barron-Torres without filing charges against Arizona Border Patrol agents, LaMadrid's mother Guadalupe Guerrero told the Arizona Daily Star that she would sue the government in federal court. "We will continue to demand justice," Guadalupe Guerrero told reporters during a news conference in Tucson on Monday as she stood before a mural of her son. LaMadrid, 19, a US citizen from the Arizona town of Douglas, was shot four times in March 2011 as he tried to flee Border Patrol into Mexico.
The Douglas Police Department (DPD) had received a call saying a gold Chevrolet Avalanche - LaMadrid's truck - had been loaded with suspicious bundles. Officers followed the truck as LaMadrid drove it to the border with Mexico, got up and tried to scale a ladder over the fence. According to the Justice Department, another man who was with LaMadrid at the time hurled brick-sized rocks at the pursuing Border Patrol agent, causing him to open fire. Border Patrol agents are authorized to use deadly force when they or someone else are in danger of being killed; rocks fall under the category of objects which could be potentially lethal.
The Justice Department wrote in its statement released on Friday that it would be closing the case it had opened on the incident as well as the case of another shooting death at the hands of Border Patrol, that of Ramses Barron Torres, who was shot to death by an agent in 2011.
"While a civilian witness who climbed up the ladder behind the victim stated that he did not see anyone throwing rocks at the time of the shooting, his account is contradicted by the physical, testimonial and video evidence," said the report. "A law enforcement officer who witnessed the shooting stated that he saw a man on top of the fence throw three rocks at the agent, forcing the shooting agent to duck down behind his vehicle for cover. The videotapes of the incident, although poor in quality, show an individual on top of the border fence making an overhead throwing motion as the victim ascends the ladder. Crime scene investigators recovered several brick-sized rocks at the scene, including one that shattered the windshield of the USBP agent's service vehicle, which the agent was standing or stooping next to when he fired five shots."
The department concluded that it didn't have sufficient evidence to prove the agents weren't acting in self-defense necessary to file federal civil-rights charges. And on the Barron Torres case, according to the Arizona Daily Star, it added that it didn't have jurisdiction over the Mexican side of the border, where the young man was killed after agents fired across the fence from Nogales, Arizona.
Immigration advocates criticized the department's decision. "It is alarming that the Department of Justice will not pursue criminal charges against U.S. Border Patrol agents involved in separate 2011 fatal shootings in Arizona. There aren't sufficient oversight mechanisms in place now to hold Border Patrol agents accountable for their actions when they abuse their authority," Pedro Rios of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium told UT San Diego. "My concern is that these types of violent incidents by Border Patrol, and decisions that do not provide justice for affected individuals, will become more common if we do not pursue protective measures for civil and human rights of border and immigrant communities."
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