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Smuggler Shooting Immediately Tests Border Patrol's New Force Policy

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #837)
Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy

Last Friday, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske announced new policies designed to reduce the use of deadly force by Border Patrol agents. Hours later, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed marijuana smuggler Luis Arambula, 31, as he fled on foot through an Arizona golf course. Arambula becomes the 20th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

The killing is bound to put CBP's new use of deadly force policies to the test. According to the CBP's new handbook, the use of deadly force is authorized only when there is imminent danger of death or serious injury to the agent or someone else. Deadly force is not to be used "solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing subject," but can only be justified when the person "has inflicted or threatened to inflict serious physical injury or death" and the person's escape poses an imminent threat of serious injury or death to the agent or others.

But that doesn't appear to be the case with Luis Arambula. Border Patrol Agent Daniel Marquez shot him nine times as he ran through a golf course after his vehicle got stuck as he fled from agents. Agents had tried to pull him over on Interstate 19, but he didn't stop, instead getting off the highway, onto an access road and then a surface street into the golf course.

Two agents chased him on foot for a quarter mile, then Marquez opened fire. Agents claimed that Arambula made "punching out" motions with his arms, as if he were aiming a gun at that in a two-handed stance, but Pima County sheriff's deputies investigating the incident said Arambula was unarmed.

The Pima County Sheriff's Office is investigating the killing. We shall see how CBP handles this first challenge to its new deadly force policy.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Nemo (not verified)

I bet ol' Gil wishes he'd stayed at ONDCP. All he had to do there was just BS the public about cannabis.

Bet he wished he hadn't worked so hard against legalization, too. His current headache was caused by the cannabis prohibition he supports.

From frying pan to fire...with his arse in the flames.  May he have lots of prohib company.

Wed, 06/04/2014 - 9:45pm Permalink
mooonn man (not verified)

Immigrants have the right not to be shot but not US citizens who are victims of SWAT no knock raids. 

Thu, 06/05/2014 - 4:26pm Permalink
mooonn man (not verified)

Immigrants have the right not to be shot but not US citizens who are victims of SWAT no knock raids. 

Thu, 06/05/2014 - 4:27pm Permalink

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