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Border & Immigration

Agent's Lawyer Says Gunshot Victim Had Threatened Agent

The lawyer for a federal agent who shot a Mexican national last Tuesday said the victim had threatened him with a rock.

Neither the Border Patrol nor the FBI will identify the agent. However, his lawyer said he shot the man in the stomach after the man brandished a rock at him.

Witnesses told sheriff's detectives the agent shot the man while he was down on the ground.

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Jim Calle, the agent's lawyer, denied that.

"The agent is telling him,  'Don't even think about it. Don't do it. Drop the rock.'" Calle said. "And the alien does not do that. Reaches for another rock and starts coming up at the agent at which point the agent fired one round at him."

Calle said the agent has not been charged with a crime. The victim is identified as Jesus Enriquez Castro, a 30-year-old man from Nogales, Sonora.

Enriquez's lawyer also said his client had fallen to the ground before he was shot.

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