D.A. Calls Border Shooting That Killed 1 Justified

San Diego police officers and U. S. Border Patrol agents were justified when they killed one man and wounded three others in a border shooting last March, the county district attorney has concluded.

The incident occurred the night of March 28 when members of the Border Crime Prevention Unit confronted five men they believed were trying to rob and assault illegal aliens sneaking across the border into the United States.

According to the district attorney’s office, which reviewed the shooting case, two undercover police officers and three Border Patrol agents confronted the suspects near a dirt trail east of Dairy Mart Road.

One of the alleged bandits, Rafael Alexander Vasquez, pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at the officers. The officers responded with guns drawn and opened fire.

Vasquez was killed, and three of the other suspected bandits were wounded. A fifth suspect escaped. The district attorney said a fully loaded and cocked .22-caliber revolver was found next to Vasquez, and that his accomplices were armed with guns, a knife and a screwdriver.

The wounded suspects, identified as Jose Manuel Villa-Luna, Enrique Estrada-Rodriguez and Rafael Navarro-Sanchez, are being prosecuted for attempted robbery.

In ruling the shootings justified, the district attorney said: “The swift and deliberate acts of the suspects, properly likened to sharks on the scent of blood, necessitated a deadly response to a deadly danger.”