Determining if a Border Patrol agent was justified in killing a Douglas teen in 2011 might come down to whether there were rocks being thrown from across the border at the time, making the agent fear for his life.
The bench trial in the fatal shooting of Carlos LaMadrid by Border Patrol agent Lucas Tidwell ended Tuesday after nearly seven days of testimony before U.S. District Judge James Soto.
Neither the Department of Justice nor the Cochise County Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges against Tidwell, citing lack of evidence to prove he didn’t shoot in self-defense. But LaMadrid’s family sued the federal government for what they consider to be unjustified use of force.
LaMadrid, 19, a U.S. citizen, was killed on March 21, 2011, as he climbed a ladder over the border fence to flee into Mexico following a high-speed chase by Douglas police. Officers were responding to reports of a gold Avalanche loaded with bundles of marijuana. A bag with 48 pounds of marijuana was found in the truck.
The government says Tidwell was being attacked by rock throwers and LaMadrid was in the line of fire. Even if the agent was negligent — something David Wallace with the U.S. Attorney’s Office said he does not think was the case — the government is not liable because the agent’s use of force was justified given the circumstances.
The plaintiff’s expert witness, Marty Fuentes, testified how Tidwell did not keep his finger off the trigger and accidentally discharged his weapon. Most importantly, he did not have a clear target when he fired.
During the government’s questioning of Fuentes, Wallace kept going back to whether the different rules that Tidwell didn’t follow amounted to a mistake and negligence — his main argument in the case.
Exactly what happened that day will never be known, said Bill Risner one of the attorneys for the family. That’s because “there was an immediate destruction of all important items of evidence and the creation of a defense for the Border Patrol,” he said.
Plaintiffs cited testimony from two construction workers from across the street in Agua Prieta and local officers to prove there were no rock throwers threatening Tidwell when he shot LaMadrid.
But another Douglas officer and the agent himself testified there was someone on the fence throwing rocks at Tidwell. The government also presented a picture of the agent’s cracked windshield and three rocks from the scene.
LaMadrid and the rock thrower “made very bad and dangerous decisions that caused all of this mess,” said Wallace during his closing argument. And the rock-thrower, he said, ramped up the level of violence and “put an agent in a position of having to defend his life.”
Even if LaMadrid made some bad choices, Risner said, “you are not permitted to shoot people for making bad decisions, who are trying to flee, who are climbing the fence going into Mexico or anywhere else.”
“That’s a decision we’ve made as a society where we are drawing the line.”
The closing of the trial followed the most emotional day of testimony.
At one point Risner showed an autopsy photo of LaMadrid that flashed on the six screens inside the courtroom.
“My God,” gasped Guadalupe Guerrero, LaMadrid’s mother, who throughout the trial had been holding her tears, often placing her head on the table or covering her face with her hands as she saw footage of what appeared to be her son tumbling down the ladder.
His grandmother, Ines Lugo, also in the audience, started pounding her legs with her fists and had to be escorted out when she saw LaMadrid’s picture.
Guerrero and her daughter, Martha Guerrero, 21, talked on Monday about a family that has been destroyed by the death of the first son and first grandchild of the family.
“I can say I lost my parents,” Martha Guerrero said. “My mom is always crying. She is depressed. She lost her boy. She lost the man of the house. She lost her life.” She said her father has become an alcoholic.
Both women described LaMadrid as someone who loved music and sports, although he had to stop playing after an unsuccessful knee surgery in 2009.
Martha Guerrero and her father have tried to commit suicide. Six months after LaMadrid’s death, Martha Guerrero was caught with 160 pounds of marijuana in her car, the Douglas Dispatch reported.
“I was trying to get attention,” she said. “To find out my own answers to why my brother got killed.” Since then she’s gone back to school and has become a chef, something her brother would be proud of, she said.
“We are not a normal family.” Guerrero said. “It’s not the same.”
