Vol. 76/No. 46      December 17, 2012

On Oct. 25 trooper Miguel Avila shot and killed José Leonardo Coj Cumar, 32, and Marcos Antonio Castro Estrada, 29, and critically injured another using a high-powered sniper rifle.

According to the DPS, two state game wardens patrolling near McAllen tried to pull over a red pickup truck on an unpaved road. They contacted DPS for backup after the driver sped away.

The helicopter arrived after a nearly seven-mile pursuit by the wardens. A DPS report said officers suspected the vehicle might be transporting drugs, which as it turned out was not the case.

Coj and Castro were from the town of San Martín Jilotepeque in Guatemala. Coj had come to the U.S. to earn money to pay for surgery for his 11-year-old son’s injured arm, Guatemalan officials told the New York Times.

Representatives from more than half a dozen organizations turned out for a news conference and protest Nov. 1 near La Joya, Texas, close to where the shooting took place.

They were protesting the fact that the initial investigation was being carried out by the Texas Rangers, an elite unit within the DPS itself.

“The Texas Rangers and DPS are part of the same thing, making the investigation totally biased,” John-Michael Torres, communications coordinator for La Union del Pueblo Entero, who attended the protest, said in a Nov. 18 phone interview. “The Texas Rangers have a long history of abusing people and of racism,” he said.

“It was a single pickup truck, driven by a 14 year old,” Michael Seifert of the Equal Voice Network told the Militant Nov. 27. “I have seen kids out drinking and speeding down country roads. And they do not stop for a game warden. They would do just as this kid did; they would speed up.”

“I can’t find any place or anywhere protocol wasn’t followed,” Rep. Sid Miller, chairman of the state Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety, which oversees the DPS, told the Associated Press Nov. 2. “Looks like everything was done according to DPS policy. It’s unfortunate some people died, but I guess the lesson is: don’t be running from the law. So there will be no hearing.”

In a statement later the same day, DPS director Steve McCraw said he had asked the FBI and U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to investigate the incident, reported AP.

“One has to think that law enforcement agencies have no respect for human life,” Terri Burke, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, told the Times Nov. 2. “I don’t care what was in that truck. If they weren’t shooting at that helicopter, how in God’s name can you justify firing on what appears to be unarmed folks?”

“Over the past two years, more than 20 individuals have been killed by border patrol agents,” Seifert told the Militant. “Several were teenagers who were shot for allegedly throwing rocks. One was an American citizen who was shot in the back while climbing the border wall. And another was beaten and Tased while bound hand and foot and surrounded by 10 agents—allegedly for resisting arrest. To this day not a single one of those events has been clarified.”

Officer Avila has returned to work, but remains on administrative duty, pending the outcome of the investigation, reported the AP.

Christina Alvarez in Edinburg and Steve Warshell in Houston contributed to this article.
 
 
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