Teen Border Patrol Shot Had 4 Arrests For Smuggling

FBI still investigating civil rights case against agent

Though Border Patrol officials refuse to comment, the teen-
aged boy an agent shot recently in downtown El Paso had a
four-time arrest record for human smuggling - two of them
during the same week of February, 2009.

The shooting is still under FBI investigation into the
question of whether the federal agents violated the civil
rights of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca when one of them
killed him on June 7 under a railroad bridge in the border
city.

Video images captured at the time show a Border Patrol Agent
chasing a group of youngsters on a bicycle, detaining one of
them and firing at Hernandez after the boys had showered
agents with rocks.

Records indicate that once when agents arrested him,
Hernandez was to have been paid $50 per person for guiding
illegal immigrants across the river at El Paso.

U.S. Attorneys declined each time he was arrested to file
charges against the youth.

His mother, Maria Guadalupe Huereca, said she does not
believe he was ever arrested. "It's a lie," she told the
Associated Press in a telephone interview.