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Witness Speaks Out About Seeing Border Patrol Fatally Shoot Mexican Teen

Monday, attorneys for the family of a Juarez teen killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent were in town interviewing witnesses.

One of the witnesses told ABC-7 the young boy didn’t deserve to die. Although several federal agencies allege 15-year-old Sergio Hernandez was part of a group of boys throwing rocks at the border patrol agent, lawyers for the family claim the evidence says otherwise.

A Border Patrol union representative said Hernandez was on the El Paso most wanted juvenile list for smuggling and that he had been caught by the Border Patrol at least six times before.

Bobbie Mcdow is a U.S. citizen who was living in Juarez and said she’s crossed the Santa Fe bridge into Juarez hundreds of times.

She tells a story very different from the official version we’ve heard so far.

“I saw a group of young men approximately six of them and I could tell they were going to cross into the United States so I told my husband, ‘look they’re going to cross and I want to watch,'” said Mcdow at a news conference at the Mexican Consulate.

Mcdow says the teens were soon confronted by border patrol.

Most ran back to Mexico, but not one.

“The border patrol agent had a young man with his left hand and was flinging him around and had his gun…it seemed so out of control, so erratic I was very concerned that he just might discharge his weapon and kill the person that he was at his left hand. I did see someone underneath the black railroad bridge that appeared to have made a fist and a throwing motion but he was quite some distance from the agent,” said Mcdow.

Mcdow describes what she heard next, “He started discharging his weapon towards Mexico and I was really , really concerned I didn’t feel that his life was in threat because there was no one surrounding him, there was no one throwing rocks at him.”

Then she saw a lifeless body on the Mexican side.

“No one went to cross to check on the person, the boy was there by himself, all alone,” said Mcdow.

She said she called 9-1-1 and found herself surrounded by customs and border protection agents insisting she had to leave. She said no one wanted to hear what she witnessed and waited more than an hour before finally talking to the FBI.

“We were there no one said, can you tell us what happened? It was the exact opposite,” she said.

Mcdow adds, “I don’t agree that people should cross our border that way, I’m not supporting it. But I also know that because of what happened, I don’t believe that that person deserved to die for crossing our border.”

Attorneys say they are waiting on more evidence, including videos from the border patrol and the railroad.

The civil case will be tried here in El Paso and has been assigned to federal judge David Briones.

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