Lonnie Swartz, Border Patrol Agent Not Guilty In Mexican Teen's Fatal Shooting

According to the report by the Guardian on April 23, a jury in the federal courtroom in Tucson, Arizona, found U.S. border patrol agent Lonnie Swartz not guilty of second degree murder.

Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was four blocks away from his home in Nogales, Mexico, when ten bullets struck him, eight in the back, and two in the head. He died instantly. The 16-year-old was not a victim of street crime. All the shots came from the United States, from a gun of a border patrol agent named Swartz, who aimed through the fence which separates Arizona from Mexico.

According to the report by the Guardian, the agent Swartz said he fired in self-defense against rock throwing drug smugglers. Prosecutors said the agent unlawfully took a life acting as a judge and the uniform should not protect him from justice. Swartz has been on unpaid leave since being indicted in 2015. The delayed trial began last month and lasted 16 days. Swartz faced 20 years of life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder.

According to the report by the Guardian, both sides in court agreed on some basic facts. Around 11 p.m. on Oct. 10, 2012, two men climbed the border fence, followed by two other men hauling bundles. Cameras detected them and police and border patrol agents responded to the scene. They retrieved the abandoned bundles with about 10 kilograms of marijuana, worth nearly $18,000. Others, including Swartz, confronted two men straddling the 18-foot-high fence. Three people on the Mexican side started throwing rocks at the agents, at this point.

Some accounts said that Rodriguez was not involved in the throwing of rocks, and that he was merely walking home after playing basketball. It took agent Swartz 34 seconds to empty his gun, move 45 feet, reload and fire three bullets. In an emotional testimony, Swartz said he was frightened and fired after the rocks appeared to hit a fellow agent and a police dog. He said he aimed at “shadowy figures” throwing rocks and after the shooting he said, things went “gray” and he vomited.

Cross-border clashes have steadily increased in Donald Trump’s presidency. The border can be a dangerous zone where agents can face off with armed drug smugglers, human traffickers and rock throwers.

Border patrol agents across the border do not enjoy a positive image among the residents who live in close proximity with the border. The agents have a negative and hostile image in the minds of Mexican’s because of their extensive use of physical force on illegal immigrants and human trafficker’s who are helping Mexican’s cross the border illegally and enter into the United States. However, after the change of administration in White house the inflow of illegal immigrants from Mexico is at its lowest.