Teen killed by Border Patrol had record of arrests

June 26, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas

A 15-year-old Mexican boy shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent was among El Paso’s most-wanted juvenile immigrant smugglers, according to federal arrest records reviewed by The Associated Press.

The records show Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka had been arrested at least four times since 2008 and twice in the same week in February 2009 on suspicion of smuggling illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. Hernandez was repeatedly arrested along the U.S. side of the border near downtown El Paso, not far from where he was killed, but was never charged with a crime by federal persecutors.

A Border Patrol agent shot and killed Hernandez on June 7 while trying to arrest illegal immigrants crossing the muddy bed of the Rio Grande. Some witnesses said a group of people on the Mexican side were throwing rocks at the agents. Agents are generally permitted to use lethal force against rock-throwers.

The records show that in at least one case Hernandez was to be paid $50 a person for smuggling four people into the U.S.

The records also show that in one case, federal prosecutors declined to charge Hernandez because there were no “extenuating circumstances or endangerment.”

Daryl Fields, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in San Antonio, said he could “neither confirm nor deny that information.”

Border Patrol officials have declined to comment on his criminal record, citing an ongoing FBI investigation into whether the shooting was justified under Border Patrol rules and whether the agent, who remains unidentified, violated Hernandez’s civil rights.

FBI Special Agent William Weiss also declined to comment Friday.

Mexican authorities have called the killing a murder, and some demanded that the agent be extradited to Mexico to face charges.