Appeals court considers Arizona cross-border shooting case

PHOENIX (AP) — A government attorney argued Friday that the mother of a 16-year-old Mexican boy killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in a cross border shooting should not be allowed to sue the agent because the boy lacked significant ties to the United States.

The arguments before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco stem from the October 2012 shooting of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez by Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz, who opened fire from Arizona and hit Elena Rodriguez in Mexico.

The U.S. government is not part of the civil case but has filed court paperwork as an interested party and was allowed to argue before the three-judge appeals court panel.

The appeals court said it will not make a decision until after the U.S. Supreme Court hears a similar case involving a Mexican teen shot by a Border Patrol agent at the Texas and Mexico border.

In court documents submitted in February, government attorneys argued Elena Rodriguez's family did not have a constitutional right to sue in part because it lacked "significant voluntary connections" to the United States.

Gelernt said in an interview with The Associated Press that the criminal prosecution of Swartz should not be a substitute for a civil rights case.