TIJUANA – Family members of a Mexican man killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent over the weekend gazed solemnly at the coffin of Guillermo Martínez Rodríguez during a Mass yesterday.
Martínez, a father of two children, was shot near the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Friday after an encounter with a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Though the shooting occurred in the United States, Martínez crossed back into Tijuana and died there a day later. U.S. Border officials said the agent was attempting to protect himself when an assailant started throwing rocks at him.
The Mexican Attorney General's Office has opened an investigation, but in the United States, the case is being overseen by the San Diego Police Department, which expects to complete a report within 30 days, said San Diego homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney.
The Mexican government sent a diplomatic note to the United States yesterday asking for a full investigation.
"The important thing is to know exactly what happened there," said Alberto Lozano, spokesman with the Mexican Consulate in San Diego. "Either way we are condemning the use of force this way."
In Mexico, before turning over the case to federal authorities, Francisco Castro Trenti, a state police official who oversees homicide investigations in Tijuana, said his agency determined that Martínez was shot once in the back at a distance of 6 to 17 feet, and that the bullet passed through his body.
Rooney, of the San Diego homicide unit, said Mexican authorities have been helpful in allowing them to attend Martínez's autopsy, and in finding a witness, whom he wouldn't identify.
Martínez was with his older brother when the shooting took place, according to Mexican authorities. Family members said Martínez was 20.
The Border Patrol has not released the name of the agent involved in the shooting. Martínez lived in the Colonia Libertad section of Tijuana, which is just east of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Home for him and other family members was a cluster of shabby concrete buildings a block from the church where the Mass was held.
Martínez's wife declined to comment, but Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias, a Tijuana news agency, quoted his mother as saying: "He was not an animal. Why did they take his life?"
A sister, Rosa Araceli Martínez Rodríguez, 30, said her brother had lived in Tijuana for about a year. She said he was planning to work in the United States, but she didn't know where.
"He wanted to improve his children's lives, but at the same time he didn't want to leave his children," 3-month-old daughter Kimberly and son Ismael Alejandro, 2, the sister said.
El Mexicano newspaper reported that some neighbors said Martínez was involved in people smuggling, but the sister said that wasn't true, and her brother didn't have a criminal record.
Castro said his agency hadn't found a criminal record by the time the case was turned over to federal authorities. He said the case was transferred because it wasn't a local case and because it occurred in the United States.
Lozano, with the Mexican Consulate, said his office had no evidence Martínez was a smuggler.
The sister said Martínez was the youngest of nine siblings. The children worked to support the family after their father died, she said. They moved from Guadalajara to the state of Colima, and Martínez left his studies after elementary school.
"He worked in the fields, packing fruits, and as a bricklayer," she said.
The sister said she joined him in Tijuana last year, where he worked in a car wash. Lozano said Martínez was also apparently working in construction.
Mexican authorities said they are awaiting a report from U.S. authorities, but Rooney of the San Diego Police Department said police must first finish and forward the report to the U.S. Attorneys' Office, because the case involves a federal agent. Rooney said he expects it would be up to the U.S. Attorney's Office to share the information with Mexican authorities.
Martínez's sister said she doesn't know who to blame.
"These things can't go on like this ... now it touched my brother and later it will be others. They don't have the right to take the life of anyone," she said. But she also said Mexicans shouldn't feel forced to leave their country for a better life.
"The truth is ... I don't understand," she said.
Anna Cearley: (619) 542-4595; anna.cearley@uniontrib.com
