Killing of Jose Rodriguez

Killing of Jose Rodriguez

View of the international border from the top of the U.S. Customs port of entry facility in Nogales, Arizona.
Date	10 October 2012
Location	Nogales, Arizona, USA Nogales, Sonora, Mexico
Outcome	U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Lonnie Swartz charged with murder.
Deaths	1

On October 10, 2012, Lonnie Swartz, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, fired 10 shots at Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, killing him from behind a border fence in Nogales, Arizona. Agents were in the area responding to a report of drug smugglers in the area.

The shooting took place at approximately 11:30 PM, when police, Border Patrol, and US Customs agents responded to a call about two people that were seen dropping a load of drugs and fleeing back across the U.S.-Mexico border, which separates Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Sonora. When the agents approached the fence they were "barraged" by rocks, thrown from people on the Mexican side. At this time Rodriguez, a 16-year-old-Mexican national, was standing on the Mexican side of the border, while Swartz was on the American side. A witness later told the Arizona Daily Star that Elena Rodríguez was not throwing rocks but walking on the sidewalk of Calle Internacional, which runs parallel to the border fence. Swartz claimed after the shooting that he had used deadly force because Rodriguez had been throwing rocks. In late 2015 a trial started in which Swartz faced charges of murder for the killing. It was the first time a US law enforcement officer was brought up on charges related to a killing that took part across the US-Mexican border, despite there having been a number of similar incidents in the preceding decade.

See also

• List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, October 2012
• 2011 Douglas shooting