The three Border Patrol agents who fired on a Tohono O’odham tribal member, leading to the man’s death in front of his home last year, have been identified for the first time.
Border Patrol agents Scott Whitehouse, Dan Sifuentes and Ivan Torralva fired at Raymond Mattia on the Tohono O’odham Nation in May 2023, according to an amended complaint by lawyers representing Mattia’s family.
The agents who shot Mattia were previously listed as “John Does” in the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona.
The family filed suit against the federal government and the agents involved after federal prosecutors decided in fall 2023 not to bring criminal charges in the case.
An amended federal lawsuit for the first time identifies the three U.S. Border Patrol agents who fired their weapons in the fatal shooting of Raymond Mattia, a Tohono O’odham tribal member, in may 2023.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in May the agency stands by that decision.
“In our adversarial justice system, civil litigation is a search for the truth,” Zach Stoebe, an agency spokesman, said in an email at the time. “Mr. Mattia’s next of kin have able counsel, and will have the opportunity, under the lower standards of a civil case, to explore and examine the reasonableness of the actions of the Border Patrol agents who responded to the call for assistance. We stand by our criminal declination.”
The incident “does not rise to the level of a federal criminal civil rights violation or a criminal violation assimilated under Arizona law,” Stoebe previously said.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said Friday the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Signs with photos of Raymond Mattia were carried by supporters during a news conference in November 2023 held outside of the federal courthouse in downtown Tucson.
In a statement last year, the agency said three of its agents fired on Mattia in the small Tohono O’odham village of Menagers Dam, after tribal police requested assistance in response to reports of gunfire. At least one Tohono O’odham tribal police officer was in the area, as well, CBP said.
Body-cam footage released by CBP shows Mattia illuminated by searchlights in front of his home on May 18, 2023. Mattia throws an object toward agents after they order him to drop what is in his hand. Agents later learned the object was a machete still in its sheath. Mattia then appears to reach into his jacket, and agents yell at him to remove his hand. As Mattia does so, a burst of gunfire follows.
“His compliance was met with a hail of gunfire,” Ryan Stitt, a San Diego-based attorney representing the Mattia family, said earlier this year. “We will do everything in our power to hold them accountable for their egregious conduct.”
The complaint includes two federal claims alleging constitutional violations — use of excessive force and denial of familial association — and it includes several tort claims under Arizona law against individual agents, including negligence, wrongful death, assault and battery.
After federal prosecutors declined to file charges, Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon M. Jose and Vice Chairwoman Carla L. Johnson issued a joint statement calling the decision “a travesty of justice.”
The Tohono O’odham Nation’s tribal lands encompass both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. Tribal members have said they’re suffering from the militarization of federal border enforcement efforts.
