SAN YSIDRO – The shooting of a Mexican man by a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a rock-throwing incident west of the San Ysidro border crossing drew a rebuke yesterday from the Mexican Consulate in San Diego and a demand that U.S. authorities conduct a “thorough investigation.”
“Any kind of shooting toward Mexican territory is rejected by the Mexican government,” Consul General Remedios Gómez Arnau said. “They should have waited for response of the Mexican authorities.”
The Border Patrol agent shot at two people in Mexico on Tuesday night, wounding one, after a group suspected of trying to illegally enter the United States threw rocks and concrete chunks at agents, U.S. authorities said.
The agent told investigators that he feared for his life, but Gómez said it violated protocols to deal with such incidents.
The shooting occurred near Virginia Avenue at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Ysidro about 10 p.m., when an agent saw three to four people trying to scale the border fence, said San Diego homicide Lt. Terry McManus.
The agent drove toward the group and was met by a barrage of rocks and concrete thrown from the other side, McManus said.
About four to six agents responded to a call for backup and used a gate in the fence to get to its south side, an area still within the United States.
The agents fired pepper balls and other chemical agents at a group of seven to 15 people to disperse them, McManus said.
Most of the crowd ran away, he said.
“However, two of the suspects remained, still armed with rocks, and directed their attention toward the Border Patrol agents,” McManus said.
From about 50 feet away, an agent fired two rounds from his rifle, striking a 23-year-old man who was standing on Mexican soil, McManus said.
A spokesman for Tijuana's General Hospital identified the patient as Edgar Israel Ortega Chávez, according to information supplied by the Red Cross, which transported him to the hospital.
Ortega has a single gunshot wound. The bullet entered his left buttocks and exited through his pelvis, the spokesman said. He remained under police custody yesterday after surgery.
Ortega had yet to give a statement to state investigators by yesterday afternoon, according to the Baja California Attorney General's Office.
San Diego investigators were in Tijuana yesterday hoping to interview Ortega, McManus said.
According to a Tijuana police report, the incident occurred in an area west of the San Ysidro border crossing known as Colonia Empleados Federales. When police arrived, they found Ortega lying on the ground. They also found a tear-gas canister and two spent cartridges from a .223-caliber weapon, the report states.
McManus said the unidentified agent, who has been with the Border Patrol for 10 years, feared for his life and the safety of other agents when he fired his gun. No Border Patrol agents were injured during the incident.
Throwing objects at agents is a common practice, said Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Daryl Reed. Smugglers often throw rocks and concrete as a diversion.
So far this year, there have been 330 assaults on agents, compared with 254 reported incidents in 2007, Reed said.
The stretch of border where the shooting occurred has a 15-to 20-foot-tall fence made of corrugated steel.
On the south side of the fence is a levee, part of which is in the United States and part in Mexico.
The Border Patrol would like the man who was shot to be arrested for assault and will ask Mexican authorities for their cooperation, Reed said.
He could not say if the agent is on leave or has returned to duty.
San Diego police and the FBI are investigating the shooting.
Debbi Baker: (619) 293-1710; debbi.baker@uniontrib.com
Freelance writer Omar Millán González contributed to this report.
