The Tohono Oβodham tribal member shot by Border Patrol agents near his home May 18 was intoxicated, on methamphetamine and alcohol, when struck 10 times by bullets, the autopsy report shows.
Raymond Mattia, 58, lived in Menagers Dam, a remote village near the U.S.-Mexico border in the southwestern part of the Tohono Oβodham Nation. The village is about 140 miles southwest of Tucson.
Tohono Oβodham police sought assistance from the Border Patrol the night of May 18 after receiving a report gunfire in the area.
A screengrab from a Border Patrol video report detailing events that led to the fatal shooting May 18 of Raymond Mattia, a Tohono Oβodham tribal member, includes footage from body worn cameras worn by agents who fired their weapons.
The Border Patrol released a video report detailing the deadly encounter that includes body cam footage from three agents who shot and killed Mattia during a confrontation outside his home.
In it, agents and tribal officers search through his desert property using flashlights when an officer says he thinks he saw someone running in the darkness.
A few moments later, the video shows Mattia throwing an object at one of the officers that lands near his feet. They learn later that it was a machete that was still in its sheath.
Soon agents are yelling at Mattia who is standing in front of a house and is fully illuminated by flashlights.
Agents yell at Mattia to put his hands in the air, and at one point Mattia appears to reach into his jacket. A volley of gunfire immediately follows.
Three agents fire their guns, the video shows.
Agents eventually approach the mortally wounded Mattia, who fell face-down on the ground after the gunfire, and begin CPR, the video shows. He is declared dead after several minutes of life-saving efforts.
Agentsβ bullets struck Mattiaβs torso five times and his extremities another five times., the autopsy report says.
The toxicology report that accompanied the autopsy by the Pima County Medical Examinerβs Office says Mattia had a blood-alcohol level of 0.185 %, more than twice the legal limit for driving, which is 0.08 %.
He also had a significant enough level of methamphetamine to cause intoxication.
After the shooting, agents spent several minutes trying to save Raymond Mattias, who had been struck 10 times, an autopsy report said. Mattias who is blurred out in video footage provided by the Border Patrol was declared dead at the scene.
In earlier years, Mattia campaigned publicly against the negative influence of drug smugglers who passed through his community.
He also worked to connect Native American people in substance-abuse treatment with their heritage. The shooting prompted Mattiaβs family and other supporters to protest against his killing, saying it shows the damage that militarization of the border region has done to the tribe.
