AG Holder calls shooting ‘extremely regrettable’

A cell phone video has surfaced showing a US border patrol officer shooting a Mexican boy in Ciudad Juarez. Fourteen-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca was on the Mexican side of the border when he was shot and killed.

The video, obtained by CNN, captures several people running below a railroad bridge that connects the U.S. to Mexico. An officer can be seen getting off his bicycle and moving towards the figures. One person is apprehended by the officer on the Mexican side of the border.

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Soon after, the officer is seen pointing his gun at a suspect who is standing on the Mexican side of the border. At least two gunshots can be heard on the tape. A third gunshot is heard moments later.

“They’re throwing rocks,” can be heard in Spanish, according to CNN. “They hit him… they hit him,” the witness says.

Following the shooting, US officials have been scrambling to deflect criticism and paint the dead teenager as a “juvenile smuggler.”

CNN noted that FBI spokesperson special agent Andrea Simmons’ account differed from the video.

The video contradicts Simmons’ account who said: “This agent, who had the second subject detained on the ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat. However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one subject who later died.”

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The tape does not appear to show the suspects throwing rocks.

AG Holder calls shooting ‘extremely regrettable’

Attorney General Eric Holder made a statement Thursday on the shooting. CNN reported:

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Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday declared the fatal shooting of a Mexican teenager at the border “extremely regrettable,” and said the FBI was leading an investigation into the incident involving the U.S. Border Patrol. “Let me express our sincere regrets about the loss of life for that 14-year-old youngster. That was extremely regrettable,” Holder told reporters at a Justice Department news conference. Holder said he had seen some of the video which has surfaced showing Mexican youths retreating about the time of the shooting. “I’ve only seen a bit of the tape. I’ve not seen it in its entirety, but that would be something that will obviously be examined as the investigation goes on. I won’t say that will be a critical piece of the investigation, because we don’t know what the dimensions of the investigation will be, but that will certainly be a part of what the investigators will look at,” the attorney general said.

This video is from CNN.com, broadcast June 9, 2010.