Border Patrol agent wounds man near Mexican border

The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a man throwing rocks at agents near the U.S.-Mexico border in the San Diego area, authorities said Wednesday.

Edgar Israel Ortega Chavez, 22, was hospitalized with a bullet wound in his right torso after Mexican authorities found him alongside the dry, concrete-lined Tijuana River basin, Tijuana police said.

San Diego police said the shooter was a 10-year Border Patrol veteran but did not release his name. The department is investigating the shooting.

A Border Patrol spokesman, Daryl Reed, said the agent fired his gun on U.S. soil Tuesday night after seeing the man wielding a softball-sized rock on Mexican soil. Border Patrol agents tried unsuccessfully to disperse the group who had crossed to the U.S. side by firing pepper balls and using tear gas.

There was no fence separating the agent from the group when he fired, Reed said. A yellow stripe on the bottom of the river basin marks the border in the area.

Tijuana police said about 10 people were threatening Border Patrol agents, according to reports it fielded. Tijuana authorities found a tear gas canister and fragments and two .223-caliber bullet shells near Ortega's body.

This is the latest confrontation on an often-violent stretch of border near the bustling San Ysidro crossing, which separates San Diego and Tijuana. The Border Patrol began firing tear gas and high-impact pepper balls into Mexico last year in response to what it said was an alarming increase in attacks on agents.

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