RSSBORDER SHOOTING: Three men in Corbett’s truck heard gunshot, but saw little
Carolyn Hileman | June 17, 2007
In this photograph taken by Cochise County Sheriff’s Office investigators on Jan. 12, a Border Patrol vehicle driven by Nicholas Corbett, right, remains in the position where Corbett stopped in order to detain a group of four illegal Mexican immigrants, including Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera. Corbett fatally shot Dominguez-Rivera during the detention. (Courtesy of the Cochise County Attorney’s Office)
THIS IS the first of three stories about what is in reports released earlier this week on the Jan. 12 border shooting. In Friday’s edition, read what the Border Patrol agent who shot and killed the illegal immigrant told fellow agents and Border Patrol supervisors who arrived at the scene afterward.BISBEE — On their way to an illegal border-crossing into the United States, Aurelio Mendez Zamaron, 34, and his uncle, Felipe Mendez Aleman, 36, spent the night of Jan. 11 at a hotel in Agua Prieta, Sonora, after traveling from their respective homes in the central Mexican states of Aguascalientes and Zacatecas.
The next morning, the two men took a taxi to an area outside the city, where they met up with another group and began walking through the desert toward the U.S. border.
“Prior to crossing, some bandits robbed them, and (Felipe) said they even took his shoes,” wrote Sheriff’s Office detective Wendy Adney in a report detailing her interviews with the men on Jan. 12. “So the shoes he was wearing were not his.”
Following the robbery, Aurelio and Felipe’s party met up with another group, the men said, and the two groups, now consisting of approximately 25 to 30 people, together crossed into the United States.
A short time later — Aurelio said he could not recall how long and Felipe made no mention of the time — the group reached a road, possibly Border Road, and saw railroad tracks ahead.
At the same moment, they saw a Border Patrol vehicle approaching.
The border-crossers turned and ran back toward Mexico, just a few hundred yards away. But just before they reached the international boundary, Aurelio, Felipe and a third man, Miguel Angel Lopez Perez, 29, from the central state of Guanajuato, were stopped by a Border Patrol agent.
The agent, now known to be Nicholas Corbett, had a gun in his hand when he approached them, although he was not pointing it, Felipe and Aurelio said. Miguel Angel did not remember a gun.
Felipe recalled that Corbett told them, in Spanish, to sit down. Miguel Angel, who reportedly understands some English, said Corbett yelled at them in English, telling them: “Sit down on your butts, motherf——!”
After arresting the three men, Corbett put them in the back seat of his SUV and drove off through the desert scrub toward another group made up of three men and a woman — 22-year-old Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, two of his brothers and his sister-in-law.
“Miguel stated that the agent seemed more aggressive with the second group, like he was angry,” Adney wrote.
“Felipe stated that after the agent circled around the group of four, the agent exited his vehicle, running around the back. Within seconds, he heard a gun shot.”
Neither Felipe, Aurelio nor Miguel Angel saw the shooting, though they all reported hearing the shot seconds after Corbett left his truck. Miguel Angel stated that, in addition to the gun shot, he also heard a female scream. Aurelio heard someone make an “ugh” sound after the gun went off.
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