The following statement can be attributed to Kevin Keenan, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties.

There has been yet another incident of fatal shooting of unarmed people at the U.S.-Mexico border—the third and fourth killings in as many weeks.  Reports indicate that yesterday, October 25, 2012, near La Joya, Texas, a Texas state police sharpshooter in a helicopter shot at a pickup truck with suspected undocumented migrants in an attempt to disable the vehicle and instead killed two people.

This is the latest in a string of lethal shootings of unarmed people at or near the U.S.-Mexico border.  We are concerned about the apparent and growing lawlessness of law enforcement in the border region.  We question the culture and training of agencies in the region that would lead an officer to think this is an acceptable tactic and whether this same cavalier disregard for human life would apply to other populations.

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More details can be found on the website of our sister affiliate, the ACLU of Texas.

 

The ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties fights for equal protection under the law for all people.