Federal prosecutors won’t bring charges against Border Patrol agents who shot and killed Tohono O’odham tribal member Raymond Mattia in front of his home in May.
The Department of Justice’s decision, first reported by The Intercept, came after a criminal investigation found “agents’ use of force under the facts and circumstances presented in this case does not rise to the level of a federal criminal civil rights violation or a criminal violation assimilated under Arizona law,” Zachry Stoebe, public affairs officer with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, said in a statement.
Body-cam footage released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in June appeared to show Mattia, who was unarmed, reaching into his jacket and removing his hand quickly, immediately before agents fired on him.
Federal officials, including representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and an FBI agent, met with Mattia’s family and their lawyers on Sept. 19, in Sells on the Tohono O’odham Nation, to convey the decision.
But an attorney for Mattia’s family said the officials present shared no substantial information from their investigation and would not answer basic questions from the family.
“The family is looking for answers and justice,” Ryan Stitt, the San Diego-based attorney representing the family, told the Arizona Daily Star on Thursday.
WARNING: This video contains strong language and graphic content. Raymond Mattia, 58, was killed May 18 2023 in a shooting involving three U.S. Border Patrol agents. Video courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The family will likely file a civil lawsuit to get answers about what happened that night, he said. In particular, the family wants to know the agency affiliation of all officers who opened fire on Mattia, as officers from both Border Patrol and the Tohono O’odham tribal police department were on site.
Customs and Border Protection said in a June press release that three Border Patrol agents fired on Mattia, out of 10 agents who were present, and that there was one tribal policeman on duty in the area that night.
During the September meeting, Mattia’s family asked DOJ employees if tribal police also fired at Mattia.
In response, “they said it wasn’t the appropriate time to do civil discovery, a legal term related to information you’d get as part of a civil lawsuit,” Stitt said.
That response suggested to the family that DOJ officials “were looking to protect themselves against this forthcoming lawsuit, instead of answering the family’s questions about who the shooters were, what they said and what the independent investigation shows, and why charges are not going to be filed,” Stitt said. “The family has a clear right to that information.”
On Thursday the Star asked Stoebe, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Arizona district, whether any tribal police members also fired on Mattia. Stoebe said a Freedom of Information Act request is necessary to get that information, which the Star filed on Thursday.
The lack of transparency from the U.S. Attorney’s Office is “really disappointing and upsetting to the family,” Stitt said. “It compounds their grief and the injury that they’ve suffered.”
Night of the shooting
Mattia, 58, lived near the U.S.-Mexico border in a remote Tohono O’odham village called Menagers Dam, about 140 miles southwest of Tucson.
Mattia’s family said on May 18, the night he was killed, Mattia had called law enforcement to report border-crossers on his property.
“Raymond called for help and, in turn, was shot down at his doorstep,” the family said in a statement at the time. “In our eyes and hearts, we believe that Raymond was approached with excessive and deadly force that took his life.”
CBP said on that night, Ajo Border Patrol Station agents were responding to a request for assistance from the Tohono O’odham Nation Police Department around 9 p.m., after receiving a report of gunfire in the area.
Agents met a tribal police officer at a local recreation center and followed the officer by car, then on foot, to an area near Mattia’s home.
The body-cam footage CBP released in June shows Mattia illuminated by agents’ search lights in front of his home. A few moments later, the video shows Mattia throwing an object toward the officers, which lands at their feet, after agents ordered him to put down what he was carrying. Agents later learned that it was a machete still in its sheath.
Mattia, who was unarmed at that point, then appears to reach into his jacket and agents yell, “Put your hands out of your (expletive) pocket!” As Mattia quickly pulls out his hand, a volley of gunfire immediately follows and Mattia falls face down on the ground.
According to the autopsy report, agents’ bullets struck Mattia’s torso five times and his extremities another five times.
Afterwards agents approach and begin life-saving efforts, including CPR, the video shows. He was pronounced dead at 10:06 p.m.
The autopsy report showed Mattia had methamphetamine and alcohol in his system. According to the toxicology report from the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office, Mattia had a high enough level of methamphetamine to cause intoxication, and a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit for driving.
Mattia’s family and supporters have decried the shooting, saying it shows how a militarized border region has damaged the tribe, whose ancestral lands encompass terrain on both sides of the border with Mexico.
Mattia was “a father, uncle, brother, friend, and an involved community member,” the family’s May statement said. “Raymond always fought for what was right, and he will continue to fight even after his death. This is not an isolated incident, but it should bring awareness of the oppression our people live through.”
