Widow says husband did not provoke border agent

Nora Isabel Lam Gallegos, 26, pauses Friday along the edge of the Rio Grande near Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where she says her husband, Guillermo Arévalo Pedroza, 36, was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. less Nora Isabel Lam Gallegos, 26, pauses Friday along the edge of the Rio Grande near Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where she says her husband, Guillermo Arévalo Pedroza, 36, was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol ... more Photo: Edward A. Ornelas Photo: Edward A. Ornelas Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Widow says husband did not provoke border agent 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Guillermo Arévalo Pedroza was on the banks of the Rio Grande with his youngest daughter in his arms when the deadly bullets started flying Monday night, his wife said.

Nora Isabel Lam Gallegos said she, Arévalo and their two young daughters had gone to a park on the river for a birthday celebration. She and her daughters' birthdays fall close together, and they were having a barbecue, Lam said.

Around dusk, a Border Patrol boat appeared near the Parque Vivero, across the river from an undeveloped stretch of land in South Laredo, she said.

The two agents were trying to stop a young man who was swimming from the U.S. to Mexico, not an unusual occurrence on this busy stretch of the border. On the Mexican side of the river, Lam and another witness said, partygoers in the crowded park began heckling the agents and telling them they were going to drown the swimmer.

Then the shooting erupted.

"Everything was covered in blood," Lam, 26, said through tears. "He was already dead. So I started screaming 'They killed him, they killed him, they have killed him' (The agents) heard that I said that they had killed him, and they left."

FBI investigating

In a statement, the Border Patrol said its agents came under attack from rock throwers on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande and said investigation has been turned over to the FBI.

Lam and Veronica Martinez, a U.S. citizen who lives in Nuevo Laredo and whose boyfriend was friends with Arévalo, said the attack was unprovoked.

The Mexican foreign ministry released a statement saying it had asked the U.S. government for an "exhaustive investigation to determine, if applicable, the corresponding sanctions."

"The government of Mexico has repeatedly expressed that the disproportionate use of force in the exercising of immigration enforcement operations is unacceptable, so it's necessary to have a full understanding of the events that occurred," the statement reads.

It's the latest incident in the recent years in which Border Patrol agents have fired fatal gunshots into Mexico. Agents say they're also at risk. On Sunday, gunmen in Mexico fired between eight and 12 rounds at agents in a boat and on the U.S. bank, a Border Patrol spokesman said. No one was injured.

'That's a big lie'

Fernando Garcia, the executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights expressed concern that agents are responding to rock throwers with gunfire, a sentiment echoed by Lam and Martinez.

"If they're saying we were throwing rocks, that's a big lie," Martinez said. "But if we were, it's not the same thing, a rock and a bullet."

George McCubbin III, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing agents, said law enforcement officers are in danger whenever they're on the border and are particularly exposed on the small boats that patrol the river.

"What are they suggesting is the alternative?" McCubbin asked. "Allow us to sit there, remain and get hit until someone gets their head split open?"

Lam said she and Arévalo had been together 13 years. She described the 36-year-old construction worker as "joyful and friendly with the whole world."

"His daughters were everything to him," she said.

"I want justice, nothing more," Lam said. "I want no money. I ask for nothing. All I ask for is justice. Life in prison (for the agent)."

The Laredo Morning Times contributed to this report.

jbuch@express-news.net