Under fire, Border Patrol says agents kill only ‘as last resort’ [View all]
Source: McClatchy DC
MEXICO CITY — Under fire for killing 21 people along the Southwest border since 2010, the Border Patrol says its agents use lethal force only “as a last resort,” even as the Cabinet secretary who oversees the agency has promised Congress that he’ll personally review recent cases “to ensure that we’re getting this right.”
A McClatchy report Thursday documented how a Border Patrol agent on Jan. 16 shot and killed a 31-year-old migrant who appeared to be on his knees or on the ground off a highway in southeastern Arizona.
The Border Patrol says the victim, Gabriel Sanchez Velazquez, lunged for the service firearm of one of its agents, meriting his shooting death. The agent’s identity has been kept secret.
After the news story was published, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, the umbrella agency that oversees the Border Patrol, issued a statement late Thursday, saying Border Patrol agents “may use deadly force only when the agent or officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury” to the agent or anyone else.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/02/28/219786/under-fire-border-patrol-says.html
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