Customs and Border Safety (CBP) officers revealed little info instantly following Cruz Marcos’ killing, together with what led to it, aside from confirming it was conducting an investigation into his demise. His post-mortem report has since revealed that he was shot 4 instances, together with twice within the face. “The way of demise is murder,” the report stated.
The Cochise County sheriff’s workplace has additionally since claimed that the unnamed border agent shot and killed Cruz Marcos after “choosing up a big rock and turning again in direction of the agent, making a throwing movement with the hand that held the rock,” The Herald Evaluate studies. “Assuming the agent’s account is correct, why deadly power? Why ‘a number of’?” questioned Washington Workplace on Latin America Protection Oversight Program’s Adam Isacson. And why twice within the face, in line with the post-mortem report?
Border Patrol had in 2018 additionally initially claimed that 20-year-old Claudia Patricia Gómez González was shot and killed as a result of she tried to assault an agent with a “blunt” object. That declare by officers turned out to be an entire lie. A witness stated that Gómez González by no means rushed anyone. “The lady was within the grass and bushes; to me, she was hiding,” the witness stated.
It should be famous that later that very same yr, the insurrectionist president inspired taking pictures migrants for throwing imaginary rocks.“’They need to throw rocks at our army, our army fights again,’ Trump blustered,” Day by day Kos’ Laura Clawson wrote on the time. “’We’re going to think about—and I informed them, take into account it a rifle.’ Besides a rock isn’t a rifle … and other people arriving to ask for authorized asylum aren’t more likely to throw rocks, particularly when lots of them have their younger youngsters with them.”
Advocates have moreover expressed deep concern in regards to the integrity of the probe into Cruz Marcos’ killing.
“There are a number of pink flags on this investigation,” the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) stated, noting the Cochise County sheriff’s workplace didn’t get well his physique till the subsequent day. “The Cochise County Sheriff’s Workplace is main the investigation into Cruz’s demise,” Arizona Day by day Star reported. SBCC additionally raised considerations about any involvement of Border Patrol’s shadow items which have for years labored to cowl up abuses by border brokers.
Arizona Day by day Star reported that the Consulate of Mexico in Douglas has been involved with Cruz Marcos’ household, together with a sister who lives in Arizona, and pays to have his physique returned to Mexico. The consulate can also be working to assist the household safe pro-bono illustration.
Arizona Day by day Star reported Frontera de Cristo in the course of the vigil additionally remembered different migrants who’ve died whereas trying to cross the tough southern borderlands. “Since January 2010, no less than 200 folks have died as the results of an encounter with a CBP agent,” SBCC stated. Frontera de Cristo member Mark Adams stated “justice has a broader which means that features discovering a method to finish the human tragedy of so many dying within the desert,” Arizona Day by day Star reported.
“The realities of immigration and the best way we’ve responded don’t facilitate understanding between nations,” he stated within the report. “We’ve made a demise sentence for some to go and do drywall or decide our fruit or work on our golf programs.”
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