Border Patrol agent is indicted for 2012 fatal shooting

“In fact, last week the federal government finally got around to trying two suspects in Agent Terry’s murder”, said former police detective and narcotics agent Melanie Porchost.

Nicholas Corbett was accused in the January 2007 death of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera. The results of the current indictment are a far cry from what occurred in a similar case in which a 15-year-old named Hernandez Guereca was shot across the border and killed.

All of the cases took place in Arizona. They believed Elena Rodriguez was among a group of teens who were throwing rocks at agents, potentially endangering their lives.

Luis Parra, a lawyer for Elena’s mother, told the Associated Press the Rodriguez family is “grateful to the DOJ for this first step in the pursuit of justice”.

Swartz’s attorney, Sean Chapman, did not respond to calls seeking comment.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesman said Thursday that Swartz has been placed on administrative leave.

A union representing Border Patrol agents across the U.S. West spoke out against the charges on Thursday in a post on the union website. “We ask the public to withhold judgment about Agent Swartz while the legal process unfolds”.

Rodriguez’s family has also filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that the killing of their son was “unreasonable” and “excessive”, BuzzFeed reports.

On October. 10, 2012, Swartz allegedly fired his service weapon through the border fence into Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, killing Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.

“The possibility that the legality of the official’s actions could be questioned in a trial improves the building of the community’s confidence in migratory control agents and in the justice system of that country”, the statement said. At the behest of concerned members of Congress, the Office of Inspector General is already reviewing border agencies’ use-of-force guidelines in connection with a different incident.

The family – Elena Rodriguez’s parents, sisters and brother in Mexico and grandparents, who are USA citizens, in Arizona – remains optimistic, Parra said. A federal judge in July ruled that the lawsuit can go forward. In that case, a three-judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals originally said Hernandez Guereca’s family could sue the city of Mesa, Arizona, but the full court overturned the June 2010 ruling in April 2015.