TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A federal prosecutor says a U.S. Border Patrol agent charged with killing a Mexican teen was fed up with cross-border rock throwers when he deliberately shot at the boy.
Lonnie Swartz is facing his second trial in the 2012 shooting of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.
Swartz was acquitted of murder earlier this year and now faces manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter charges.
In an opening statement Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Kleindienst said Swartz shot Elena Rodriguez even though other agents and police had retreated from people throwing rocks across the border.
He says Swartz had been involved in previous rock-throwing incidents and had gotten fed up.
Defense attorney Sean Chapman says Swartz and his colleagues were in serious danger and Swartz did the right thing by using deadly force.
