$500,000: Wounded Teen Wins Judgment : Tijuana Youth Shot by Agent Gets $500,000

A Tijuana youth who was shot in the back by a Border Patrol agent in 1985 for allegedly throwing rocks through a fence at the border was awarded $500,000 in damages Thursday by a federal judge, who ruled the agent’s explanation for the shooting was “incredible.”

Agent Edward C. Cole shot Humberto Carrillo Estrada, now 14, who was standing on the Mexican side of the fence while two other agents attempted to arrest Humberto’s older brother on the U.S. side. Cole said he shot the younger boy because he was about to heave a softball-sized rock through a hole in the fence at another agent.

The shooting caused an international furor, raising the ire of Latino organizations and straining relations between the two nations. Investigations by the San Diego County district attorney’s office cleared Cole of any criminal wrongdoing, based on Cole’s version of the events.

Second D.A. Inquiry Wanted

But Carrillo’s attorney, Marco E. Lopez of Los Angeles, called Thursday for authorities to open a second investigation into possible criminal charges against Cole “based on the judge’s finding that Cole’s version of the incident was not credible.”

Carrillo and his mother sued the government for damages in federal court in San Diego. The trial, which ran for seven days this month, turned on whether the shooting was justified because Cole had a reasonable belief that one of his partners was going to be injured.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Judith N. Keep ruled that Cole’s version of what happened during the afternoon of April 18, 1985, didn’t square with the facts. She also said the shooting was unlawful.

Though Cole didn’t testify in the case, two of his statements submitted as evidence said he fired three shots at Carrillo because the boy was holding a rock in an upright hand, poised to smash another border agent on the head through a hole in the chain-link fence.

One of the .38-caliber bullets fired by Cole struck Carrillo in the left side, entering his body below the shoulder, breaking a bone in his back and three ribs, then lodging in his right shoulder.

Agent’s Version Not Supported

Keep, however, noted that testimony from three other agents, along with the physical evidence in the case, failed to support Cole’s version. She said there was no proof that Carrillo was about to throw a rock, and evidence showed there was no hole in the fence where Carrillo’s older brother was scuffling with police.

The closest hole in the fence was 48 feet to the east of where the agents had arrested Carrillo’s brother.

Cole’s partner was “not in danger of having his head smashed by a rock, as a one-inch by one-inch wire mesh fence separated him from Humberto,” Keep wrote. “Further, no eyewitness saw plaintiff (Carrillo) in this position, although they did see plaintiff throwing rocks.

“Hence, the court cannot find this shooting was a lawful use of force in defense of another. Cole’s version of the facts is contrary to the evidence. What he says he believed is incredible. Hence, the court cannot find his belief is reasonable.”

That determination directly contradicts the findings of an investigation conducted by Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller.

In a May, 1985, letter, Miller said he declined to bring criminal charges against Cole because “the evidence is uncontroverted that similar rock-throwing incidents have in the past resulted in serious injury to federal officers in the same general area. The history of injury was known to Agent Cole . . . .

“As a result, we have no ability in the case to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cole’s apprehension was unreasonable.”

Keep, too, remarked about the history of rock throwing: “The court felt great concern hearing testimony about the frequency with which Border Patrol agents are the victims of rock-throwing incidents.

“Certainly, under some conditions, such ‘rocking’ can be extremely dangerous and may justify the use of deadly force. This simply is not such a case.”

Keep ordered the U.S. government to pay Carrillo $500,000 for suffering and pain, along with an additional $74,000 for past and anticipated medical expenses.

After he was shot, Humberto was taken by Life Flight helicopter to Mercy Hospital in San Diego, where the bullet was removed and he recuperated for a week. He later underwent a second operation at the Issstecali Hospital in Tijuana.

Stress Condition Noted

Keep noted in her opinion that Carrillo suffers pain from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, and has become “withdrawn, depressed, melancholy and tearful.” The judge said the boy was forced to switch schools because of hazing from classmates, and she cited testimony in the trial that it would take Carrillo three years of intensive psychological counseling to overcome the stress disorder.

At the time of the shooting, Carrillo lived with four younger sisters, brothers and his mother in a sagging four-room house made of tar paper and wood over a plain concrete floor. The home is five miles south of the border in a squatters’ neighborhood, where drinking water is purchased from trucks.

No Electricity for TV Gift

In response to the incident, the family was given gifts, one of which was a television set. The set, however, sat unused because there was no electricity at the house.

Lopez, reached by telephone Thursday, reacted to the judgment with satisfaction.

“We think justice has been meted out,” said Lopez, who had originally asked for $3 million on behalf of the boy. “I have not yet talked to my client, but I’m pretty certain he’ll be happy with it.”

A spokesman for Miller said the prosecutor’s office had no immediate comment but would examine Keep’s ruling today.

According to Lopez, Cole was transferred after the shooting to the Border Patrol office in Buffalo.

Telephone calls to a Border Patrol spokesman were unreturned Thursday night.