Mexican teen killed by U.S. border agents was shot SEVEN times in the back after throwing rocks across border



A teenage boy apparently killed after throwing rocks at U.S. Border Patrol agents last week, was hit seven times by gunfire and died on a sidewalk just across the Arizona-Mexico border.

Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, from Nogales, Sonora, was found dead at the border from gunshot wounds about midnight last Wednesday . An unnamed Mexican official with direct knowledge of the investigation said the teenager was shot multiple times in the back.

The mayor of Nogales, Ramon Guzman Munoz said Rodriguez was killed in a 'hail of bullets'. He has described the episode as 'deplorable' and urged a thorough investigation by both U.S. and Mexican authorities.



Relatives pray at the funeral of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was killed when a U.S. Border Patrol agent fired at suspected drug smugglers across the border into Mexico

Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, was killed in a 'hail of bullets'

The Sonora state attorney general's office in Mexico has confirmed the incident , but the U.S. Border Patrol has yet to confirm that anyone was struck by an agent's bullets, only that 'it appeared someone had been hit,' said agency spokesman Victor Brabble.

Several Border Patrol agents responded Wednesday night to reports of suspected drug smugglers in Nogales, Ariz. The agents watched two people abandon a load of narcotics, then run back to Mexico.



The agents gave chase and were pelted by rocks thrown from across the border. The agency said the people ignored orders to stop, and an agent open fire.

The Sonora state attorney general's office issued a statement Thursday confirming that Rodriguez was dead. However they didn't confirm that the boy had been shot by the Border Patrol, only noting that police received reports of gunshots, then found his body on a sidewalk near the border barrier.

A Mexican official with direct knowledge of the investigation confirmed the boy was shot by the agent, and said authorities were meeting Friday in Mexico City to discuss the case. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not yet authorized to discuss details of the case.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department issued a statement Thursday saying it 'forcefully condemned' the shooting and calling such deaths 'a serious bilateral problem.'

Border agents are generally allowed to use lethal force against rock throwers, and there are several ongoing investigations into similar shootings in Arizona and Texas.

Relatives cry beside a coffin containing Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez who was found dead at the border from gunshot wounds about midnight last Wednesday

Relatives and friends look at the body of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez in a coffin during his funeral on Sunday

The major of Sonora has described the tragic death as 'deplorable' and called for thorough investigation by both Mexican and U.S. officials

In 2010, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent firing his weapon from El Paso, Texas, into Juarez, Mexico. Some witnesses said people on the Mexican side of the river, including the teen, were throwing rocks at the agent as he tried to arrest an illegal immigrant crossing the Rio Grande.

A federal judge in El Paso last year dismissed a lawsuit by the family of the boy because the teen was on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande when he was shot. U.S. law gives the government immunity when such claims arise in a foreign country, the judge noted.



In 2011, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed a man climbing a fence along the Arizona-Mexico. Cochise County sheriff's investigators said at the time there was no indication the 19-year-old assaulted or tried to assault the agent when he was shot three times in the back while climbing a ladder trying to cross the border back into Mexico.



Investigators later found 48 pounds of marijuana in the back of the man's truck. An investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

Laid to rest: An unnamed Mexican official claims Rodriguez was shot seven times in the back