Witnesses say U.S federal agents beat a man until he was unconscious Friday evening as he walked south into Tijuana at the San Ysidro pedestrian crossing.
However, Border Patrol spokesman Darly Reed say the man was in Border Patrol custody, being deported to Mexico, when he became combative. He says agents Tasered the man to try to get him under control.
San Diego’s Assistant Police Chief, Boyd Long, who would not comment on the man's physical state, says the man, who had been detained by a Border Patrol agent, was taken by ambulance to Scripps Memorial Hospital in Chula Vista. San Diego Fire spokesman, Maurice Luque, says the man was 35 year-old.
Witnesses who were on the Mexican side of the San Ysidro pedestrian crossing, and say they could clearly see what was happening, have a different version of the events.
A woman, with the migrant protection group Coalicion Pro-Defensa de Migrantes, says shortly before 9 o’clock Friday evening, U.S border security agents stopped a man, who was headed south into Mexico, just a few meters from the border crossing.
The witness, who would not give her name out of fear, says it’s not clear what the agent asked the man. But, the man took off running. She says Border Patrol agents tackled the man, kicked him while he was on the ground and Tasered him.
Apparently, people walking across the border began yelling at the U.S. agents to stop beating the man. Agents supposedly then dragged the man to an area beside the border crossing, that’s used to process deported migrants for repatriation.
Border Patrol agent Reed says the man remains hospitalized. He says the investigation is ongoing.
