Name Killing Jose | ||
On October 10, 2012, Lonnie Swartz, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, fired 10 shots at José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, killing him from behind a border fence in Nogales, Arizona. Agents were in the area responding to a report of drug smugglers in the area.
The shooting took place at approximately 11:30 PM, when police, Border Patrol, and US Customs agents responded to a call about two people that were seen dropping a load of drugs and fleeing back across the U.S.-Mexico border, which separates Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Sonora. When the agents approached the fence they were "barraged" by rocks, thrown from people on the Mexican side. At this time Rodriguez, a 16-year-old, Mexican national, was standing on the Mexican side of the border, while Swartz was on the American side. A witness later told the Arizona Daily Star that Elena Rodríguez was not throwing rocks but walking on the sidewalk of Calle Internacional, which runs parallel to the border fence. Swartz claimed after the shooting that he had used deadly force because Rodriguez had been throwing rocks. In late 2015 a trial started in which Swartz faced charges of murder for the killing. It was the first time a US law enforcement officer was brought up on charges related to a killing that took part across the US-Mexican border, despite there having been a number of similar incidents in the preceding decade.