19 year-old US citizen murdered by border patrol agent.

US Border Patrol agents are often seen as vigilantes, taking the law into their own hands, putting the lives of any brown people around them at risk.  This sad story is one of those cases:

On March 21, 2011, US Border Patrol agent Lucas Tidwell shot and killed 19 year-old US citizen Carlos La Madrid as he crossed the border into Mexico.  Madrid, who was suspected of smuggling marijuanna, was shot twice in the back and once in the thigh as he climbed a border fence.  He was unarmed and (again) running AWAY from Tidwell.  The AP reports:

A police report obtained by the AP in November from the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office shows that Douglas police officers were responding to a tip about a car loading drugs when they tried to stop La Madrid and another teen, 17-year-old Jesus Manuel Chino Lino.  La Madrid, who was driving, set off a chase by police and the Border Patrol that ended with a collision between Tidwell’s and La Madrid’s vehicle.  La Madrid and Chino Lino ran from the vehicle, and La Madrid began climbing a ladder propped on the border wall. Simultaneously, a man who was sitting on the border wall began throwing rocks at Tidwell’s vehicle, hitting the windshield twice, the report said.  That’s when Tidwell shot La Madrid, whose back was turned and who hadn’t thrown any rocks, according to the report.

Madrid’s mother, Guadalupe Guerrero, who gave birth to him 10 years after immigrating to the US from Mexico, is now suing the US Customs and Border Protection:

“Why did they kill him? Who are they to play God?” Guerrero said in Spanish on what would have been her son’s 21st birthday.  “I say he didn’t have drugs, but let’s suppose he did,” Guerrero said. “Let’s suppose he had 40 pounds of marijuana. You think that’s dangerous enough to kill a young boy, an American citizen? Why not send him to jail?”

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