True account of 16-year-old teen shot at border

— Oct. 11 11:21 PM EDT

PHOENIX (AP) — A U.S. Border Patrol agent opened fire on a group of people throwing rocks from across the Mexican border, killing a teenage boy and eliciting outrage from the Mexican government over the use of lethal force, authorities said Thursday.

The agents in Nogales, Ariz., had responded to reports of two suspected drugs smugglers near the border at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. The agents watched the two abandon a load of narcotics, then run back to Mexico, according to the Border Patrol.

As the agents approached to investigate, people on the Mexican side of the border began throwing rocks at them and ignored orders to stop, the agency said.

One agent opened fire. A Mexican official with direct knowledge of the investigation said Thursday a 16-year-old boy was killed in the shooting. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not yet authorized to discuss details of the case.

The Sonora state attorney general's office in Mexico said in a statement Thursday that Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, from Nogales, Sonora, was found dead at the border from gunshot wounds about midnight Wednesday.

However, the office didn't definitively confirm the boy had been shot by the agent, only noting that police received reports of gunshots, then found his body on a sidewalk near the border barrier.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department issued a statement later saying it "forcefully condemned" the shooting and calling such deaths "a serious bilateral problem."

"The disproportionate use of lethal force during immigration control actions is unacceptable under any circumstances. The repeated nature of this type of cases has drawn a reaction of rejection from Mexican society and all of the country's political forces."

The department said it had asked U.S. authorities for a "exhaustive, transparent and timely investigation" of the shooting.

The Border Patrol declined to comment further and would only say in a statement that one person "appeared to have been" shot by the agent. The FBI was investigating.

Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said in a statement that Mexican authorities will also investigate.

Border agents are generally allowed to use lethal force against rock throwers.

The article goes on to discuss previous similar incidents, each regarding a young person and each involving drugs.  Below is the post if you should desire to read the entire article and since it is an "AP" article I will assume it will be trusted.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bp-agent-ariz-fires-rock-throwers-mexico