Border Patrol Agent Indicted for Fatal Shooting of Mexican Teen

A federal grand jury charged Swartz with second-degree murder in connection with the October. 10, 2012 cross-border fatal shooting of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, in Nogales.

Instead, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of 1,400 of the 2,000 guns involved in the sting operation, including two weapons found at the scene of Terry’s killing. But his family says the boy was walking home from a basketball game with friends.

According to Swartz’s defense team leader, Sean Chapman, the decorated agent will plead not guilty when he’s arraigned on October 9. The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on the case. Customs and Border Protect, said they don’t have a comment because of pending litigation. “But our jobs are risky and the decisions we make every day determine if we will return home safely to our families”.

The union asked that the public to withhold judgment while the criminal case plays out and said Swartz is innocent.

The Border Patrol said that Elena Rodriguez was among a group of rock-throwers endangering agents’ lives.

“Sadly, our agents and all law enforcement officers operate in a world of political agendas and armchair quarterbacking”, the agents’ union said in a statement Thursday. The ruling “helps build community confidence in border control agents and the justice system” of the United States. Generally, CBS reports, agents are allowed to use lethal force in situations that can be “potentially deadly”.

According to the Los Angeles Times, rock throwing is common along that part of the border.

An autopsy revealed he was shot 10 times.

The family – Elena Rodriguez’s parents, sisters and brother in Mexico and grandparents, who are USA citizens, in Arizona – remains optimistic, Parra said.

Late last week Federal Judge U.S. District Court Judge David Bury, who is residing over the case, ruled that Operation Fast and Furious can not be brought up during the trial because it has “no bearing on the crime committed”.

“Lonnie Ray Swartz, did with malice aforethought, and whilst armed with a P2000 semiautomatic pistol, kill” Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, the indictment reads.

In April, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Border Patrol agents shooting from U.S. soil can not be sued when they kill someone across the border in Mexico.