Border Patrol Fatally Shoot Latino Man Three times in the Back Because he Looked like an Illegal Immigrant

From [HERE] and [HERE] Carlos La Madrid was driving a vehicle Douglas Police had deemed "suspicious" for unknown reasons as it sped away from them toward the Mexican border last week. According to police, he drove to the border wall west of the Douglas Port of Entry, ran out of his car and began to climb a ladder on the border wall. Police apparently assumed Madrid was an undocumented immigrant due to his physical features. The Border Patrol claimed that he, or possibly someone on the Sonoran side, was throwing rocks at an agent who then opened fire.  Madrid was a U.S. citizen.

When asked if the agent suffered any injuries as a result of the alleged rock throwing, Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said, “I do not have any indication that he did.” The FBI is conducting its own investigation into the assault against the agent, said Manuel Johnson, spokesman for the federal agency in Phoenix.  

After being treated for his wounds at the Southeastern Arizona Medical Center in Douglas, La Madrid was being transported by ambulance to a Tucson Hospital when his condition worsened. He was admitted into the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center were he was later pronounced dead, she said. 

The Cochise County Sheriff's Office says La Madrid was driving a truck with nearly 50 pounds of pot in it.

Madrid was a member of a family that filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the federal government last year after their home was raided by a number of federal agencies, according to court documents. The family is asking for more than $9 million in damages.According to a complaint filed Feb. 9, 2010, with the U.S. District Court in Arizona, on the morning of Nov. 4, 2009, several federal agencies, including U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol Tactical Units raided the home of the Guerrero family in the 1400 block of 20th Street in Douglas.

Agents were “hooded and heavily armed” when they stormed the home, detaining family members and using abusive language and threats against them, the complaint alleges.