Reuters AlertNet Lite - U.S. border cop charged with murdering migrant

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

U.S. border cop charged with murdering migrant

24 Apr 2007 00:56:42 GMT
Source: Reuters

PHOENIX, April 23 (Reuters) - A U.S. Border Patrol agent was charged with murder on Monday for shooting dead a Mexican immigrant last January in a case that prompted condemnation and increased tensions with Mexico.

The Cochise County Attorney's office filed four charges including first degree murder against agent Nicholas Corbett.

The charges alleged that Corbett unlawfully shot Mexican Francisco Dominguez-Rivera shortly after he crossed a stretch of desert border between Douglas and Naco on Jan. 12.

Following the shooting Mexico's Foreign Ministry complained of "disproportionate violence," and instructed the Mexican embassy in Washington to investigate the circumstances.

Last year, border police nabbed some 1.1 million undocumented immigrants crossing over the border from Mexico, and recorded a soaring number of attacks on agents.

The Border Patrol had said that Corbett shot the immigrant in self defense after he had been threatened with a rock.

Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer said physical and other evidence corroborated statements by three witnesses that suggested there was no imminent danger to the agent's life.

"Based on the extensive investigation presented to this office by the Cochise County Sheriff's Department, as well as the physical evidence itself, we must come to the unfortunate but inescapable conclusion that this shooting was not legally justified," Rheinheimer said in a prepared statement.

"We have concluded that the evidence shows that at the time he was shot, Mr. Dominguez-Rivera presented no threat to Agent Corbett and Agent Corbett did not act in reasonable apprehension of imminent death or serious physical injury."

Last year two Border Patrol agents were prosecuted in Texas for shooting an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks.

They were later convicted and jailed by a court for more than ten years, becoming a cause celebre among some conservatives and anti-illegal immigration hardliners.

AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article Send comments

Countries

Small country map
© 2004 Europa Technologies Ltd.

Reset map

• Mexico profile
· View map

MORE >>

NGO latest

• U.S. LEGISLATION AIMS TO STOP USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS
WV - USA

• WORLD VISION: GLOBAL WATER SHORTAGE A CONCERN
WV - USA

• Christian Aid joins green.tv
Christian Aid - UK

• Global internal displacement crisis worsens - survey
NRC - Norway

• Christian Aid comment on 5 April Gleneagles event
Christian Aid - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

• U.S. border cop charged with murdering migrant

• Wolfowitz hires lawyer to present his case

• Series of explosions heard in Baghdad

• US pushes for another UN resolution on Darfur

• US senators raise new concerns in pet food scare

MORE >>

Last updated:Tue Apr 24 00:58:38 2007