The World According To Missygirl

Mexican Officials: Surveillance Camera Recorded Fatal Border Shooting

January 07, 2011

A police surveillance camera in Mexico reportedly recorded the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old Mexican teen by a U.S. Border Patrol agent early Wednesday.

Jose Larrinarga Talamantes, a spokesman for the Sonora Attorney General's Office in Hermosillo, told Nogales International that state investigators have confirmed the existence of the video with officials in Nogales, Sonora, and have asked for a copy.

"But it hasn't arrived yet," Talamantes told Nogales International.

The camera that purportedly captured the incident belongs to a 911-type state police command center that belongs to state authorities and not local police, meaning local authorities are unaware of its contents.

Several conflicting accounts of the shooting death of the 17-year-old, Ramses Barron Torres, have emerged since early Wednesday.

FBI officials claim Torres was shot at about 3 a.m. as U.S. Border Patrol agents were attempting to arrest suspected drug smugglers near the border fence and bystanders began throwing rocks at them. But a 17-year-old friend who claims to have witnessed the shooting told Nogales International that no rocks were thrown and that Torres was standing five or six yards from the fence on Mexican soil when he was fatally shot.

Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the United States, told reporters in Mexico City on Thursday that it appeared to be "clear that the death was the result of a gunshot wound."

FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson declined to comment on Sarukhan's claim or that of the unidentified witness.

"We're not commenting on that. The investigation is ongoing," Johnson told FoxNews.com on Friday. "We're going to collect our information and facts and present it to [authorities]."

Johnson said the incident is being investigated as an assault on a federal officer. He declined further comment.

Alejandro Palacios, a spokesman for the neighboring Mexican city of Nogales, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that agents fired warning shots in the air after Torres and other Mexican youths had illegally crossed the border.

Palacios said the youths then threw rocks at agents but none of them were shot. He said Torres, who lived in the neighboring Mexican city, died after he landed on Mexico's side of the fence.

Sonoran police said Torres' three companions left his body outside the emergency room of the General Hospital in Nogales on the Mexico side of the border and then left in a vehicle with tinted windows.

Before the unidentified companions left, they told hospital guards that Torres had been climbing a border wall to enter the United States when a Border Patrol agent fired a single shot that hit the teen.

The state police statement said an autopsy determined the bullet had gone through Torres' right arm and entered his chest, puncturing a lung.

While the victim's body had numerous scrapes and bruises — apparently caused by falling onto a gravel pile on the Mexican side — Sonoran police said the autopsy determined that the bullet wound was the cause of death. •

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I read the above story, and the comments that were posted about it. (I didn't post those here.) It made me sad that a rowdy teenager out past bedtime was shot to death because he was throwing rocks and messing around, and the border officials weren't properly trained in how to handle that heinous & frightening situation.

The postings were terrible. So many people just thought that the whole scenario was just 'A-Okay'.

They had referred to him as a wetback kid; " he deserved it", they said. - Personally I'm getting tired of the hatred. So much hatred. Everywhere it seems, so much hatred. Can't anybody else see this? I'm sure you can. I've lived in Mexico, I'm not Mexican. I was treated very kind by the Mexican people. They helped me when I needed help, they didn't show me hatred because I was a foreigner. Shouldn't we do unto others as we would have others do unto us? Jesus thought so, that's why it says exactly that in Matthew 7:12.
There are illegals here in the town where I live, I've led some to the Lord Jesus Christ and they've received Him as their Lord and Savior....DID I DO WRONG? They are illegal!

Would Jesus think I did wrong?

In heaven are we going to have to show God our birth certificates at the gate? NO! Those people are my family in Christ. We have to get past the hatred and look at others through God's eyes. We have to look at them the way He does. Time is short here.

There will always be scoffers who think that since people have been talking about His coming for hundreds of years and He hasn't arrived yet, why should we even give it any thought today... Let's just relax, pop open a beer and kick back on the couch and watch some football! Or better yet, let's go to work and make some money! (we can never have enough of that.) People Have to Wake Up!

Well, enough said, my dear friends. *******************************

Have a good and safe night tonight and a Happy Sabbath! -Missygirl*