Witness Claims BP Agent Shot Wrong Man
EL PASO, Texas (AP) – A Mexican woman who witnessed a fatal border shooting claims the U.S. Border Patrol shot the wrong man.
Laura Contreras Escarcega says she was kneeling on the ground as ordered by a Border Patrol agent when one of the men she was traveling with picked up a rock. Then she said she saw a Border Patrol agent shoot another man, the group’s suspected smuggler.
The Border Patrol today denied the wrong man was shot. Jose Alejandro Ortiz Castillo was a 23-year-old man who had been caught crossing the border 28 times since 1999.
He was shot twice as he allegedly led Contreras, her brother-in-law and another man through a hole in the fence that divides El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Mexican police found Ortiz’s body on the south side of the Rio Grande after the August 8th shooting.
Border Patrol officials have said the unidentified agent shot Ortiz after seeing him pick up a rock as Contreras was being arrested.
The case has been turned over the U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton’s Office.
Mexican officials have previously decried the shooting and have said they intended to investigate the case as a homicide.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
