XPost: alt.law-enforcement, az.politics, soc.culture.native
XPost: talk.politics.guns
On 16 Oct 2023, Jonathan Harold Esmond Vere Harmsworth
<
nowomr@protonmail.com> posted some news:ugjpqh$1ifnl$
1@dont-email.me:
Note to tribe. Make five agents disappear. You know how. Anyone who
comes looking for them, make them disappear permanently too.
SELLS, Ariz. (AP) — The Tohono O'odham Nation in southern Arizona on
Friday blasted the decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office not to
prosecute Border Patrol agents who shot and killed a member of the tribe
after they were summoned by tribal police.
Body camera footage released in June by U.S. Customs and Border
Protection shows that the agents who fatally shot Raymond Mattia were
concerned the 58-year-old may have been carrying a handgun. But no
firearm was found.
The tribe's executive office called the decision not to file charges “a travesty of justice.”
“There are countless questions left unanswered by this decision. As a
result, we cannot and will not accept the U.S. Attorney’s decision,”
said a statement signed by Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon M. Jose
and Vice Chairwoman Carla L. Johnson.
The statement said the tribe may request Congressional inquiries into
Mattia's death. Mattia was killed the night of May 18 outside a home in
the reservation’s Menagers Dam community near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement this week that its
employees met with Mattia's family and their attorneys in Sells on Sept.
19 to explain the decision.
“The 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,” the
office concluded. “We stand by our conclusion, and we hear the
Chairman’s frustration,” the statement added.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond Friday to
emails requesting comment.
The shooting occurred after Border Patrol agents were called to the area
by the Tohono O’odham Nation Police Department for help responding to a
report of shots fired.
Body camera footage shows Mattia throwing a sheathed machete at the foot
of a tribal officer and then holding out his arm. After Mattia was shot
and on the ground, an agent declares: “He’s still got a gun in his
hand.”
CBP said earlier that the three Border Patrol agents who opened fire and
at least seven others at the scene were wearing body cameras and
activated them during the shooting.
The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office reported that Mattia had nine
gunshot wounds.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/arizona-tribe-is-protesting-the-deci sion-not-to-prosecute-border-patrol-agents-for-fatal-shooting/ar-AA1iaZVa
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