A U. S. Customs and Border Patrol agent shot and killed a migrant woman along the U. S.-Mexico border on Wednesday, according to officials.…
A U. S. Customs and Border Patrol agent shot and killed a migrant woman along the U. S.-Mexico border on Wednesday, according to officials.
Agency personnel told BuzzFeed News that a Border Patrol officer shot the woman in the head, killing her, during a skirmish with immigrants in Rio Bravo, Texas.
The migrants were armed with «blunt objects» according to Border Patrol agents, but it wasn’t clear if the woman who died was armed.
A video shot by a bystander, Rio Bravo resident Marta Martinez, shows agents screaming «see what happens? See what you caused?» to the migrants, who were detained by agents after the shooting occurred. Martinez can be heard on camera berating the agents for the woman’s death.
Martinez told BuzzFeed that she does not believe the agents were under attack when they fired the shot, killing the unidentified woman.
«The girl was in the grass and trees, to me she was hiding,» Martinez said. «They’re saying they threw rocks at the agents but the two migrants were scared and the one guy was scared. They didn’t have rocks in their hands.»
Data released by the agency shows a 73 percent jump in attacks on Border Patrol agents over the last year. But those statistics were thrown into question by an Intercept report that claimed the agency was inflating the numbers, including one incident that was apparently counted as 126 different assaults.
The shooting comes days after other Border Patrol agents sparked criticism for detaining two U. S. citizens at a gas station in Montana, allegedly just for speaking Spanish.
Wednesday’s shooting is under investigation by the FBI and the Texas Rangers, according to BuzzFeed.