The lawsuit claims the agents’ actions in killing 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez were “unreasonable” and “excessive,” and asks for a trial by jury.
John Stanton/BuzzFeed
The family of a Mexican teenager who was fatally shot by Border Patrol near Nogales, Ariz., filed a lawsuit in federal district court Tuesday alleging they boy's Fourth and Fifth Amendments rights under the U.S. Constitution were violated.
The civil lawsuit was filed in the 9th U.S. District Court in Tucson by the American Civil Liberties Union and attorneys Luis Parra and Roberto Montiel on behalf of Araceli Rodriguez, the boy's mother.
"The U.S. border patrol agents who killed my son in a senseless act of violence are still out there and they need to be brought to justice," Rodriguez said in a statement. "The U.S. government has not held the agents who shot my son accountable and that is why I am bringing this lawsuit."
The lawsuit claims the agents' actions in killing 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez were "unreasonable" and "excessive," and asks for a trial by jury.
"The agents acted intentionally with the specific purpose of causing serious harm and/or death to Jose Antonio, without legal justification," it says.
On the night of Oct. 10, 2012, Elena Rodriguez was walking on a street that runs parallel to the U.S. border fence, in Nogales, Mexico. Border Patrol agents in the U.S. fired anywhere between 14 to 30 shots through the fence into Mexico, striking Rodriguez at least 10 times, according the the complaint filed Tuesday.
The circumstances of the incident remain unclear, but Border Patrol has said agents were chasing a group suspected of entering the country illegally and fired across the border in response to alleged rock throwing.
The complaint says eyewitness said agents were stationed behind a section of the fence that towers approximately 40-50 feet above the street on the Mexican side, putting into question whether agents could have taken cover instead of using deadly force.
John Stanton/BuzzFeed
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