A new trial has been announced for the Border Patrol agent who shot and killed a Mexican teen across the border. Lonnie Swartz was found not guilty of second-degree murder but jurors were deadlocked on whether to convict him of manslaughter for the shooting of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, a 16-year-old kid who died four blocks from his home. Rodriguez was struck by 10 of 16 shots fired by Swartz through the border fence separating Arizona and Mexico.
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Another Border Patrol agent named Shandon Wynecoop was with Swartz when large rocks were being thrown at them. One rock struck the Border Patrol agent's K-9 and another hit Winecoop's shoe. "I was pretty scared," Wynecoop testified, adding he "didn't know what direction" the rocks were coming from. "I didn't know how many people were throwing rocks and how long it was going to continue." That is when Swartz began firing his weapon through the fence.
Friday, prosecutors announced that Swartz would be tried again on lesser charges of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. The trial is set to begin on October 23, 2018, but is it justice for the government to get two bites at the apple? Are prosecutors allowed to just keep charging and trying someone until they get the verdict they want? The mother of Rodriguez expressed anger toward the first trial in an interview saying, "The trial for me was a fraud. It was a disappointment. It was something that was not fair, that was an injustice."
<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/7d26e306328fffc0c3dde33fdd977090afa2fe95c95e14a769ffa815cd7ae0b6.jpg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">
<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">KOLD-TV</span>
Protestors like this don't realize what the Border Patrol agents defending our border face because they have never been in their shoes or done the slightest amount of research. If they would research, they would realize that American families living near the border are terrorized by the cartel, shot, tortured, and kidnapped. Border Patrol agents themselves face armed cartel drug runners with nothing to lose that have no problem fighting to the death. According to cato.org, a public policy research organization, a total of 33 Border Patrol agents have been killed in the line of duty since 2003.
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The announcement of Swartz's retrial comes at the same time and from the same courthouse at which humanitarian aid volunteer Scott Warren is filing a motion to dismiss charges that could see him sent to prison for up to 20 years after he gave water, food, and clothing to two illegal immigrants crossing the border near the Cabeza Prieta wilderness. Warren's organization is responsible for leaving thousands of gallons of water out in the wilderness for cartel drug runners and illegal immigrants.
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@25775 bullying doesn't describe it, they were throwing rocks big enough to kill a person , that isn't bullying that is assault with a deadly weapon and the Border Patrol agent was defending our borders and the lives of his fellow agents. Its time to stop putting our soldiers in jail for doing what we pay them for
God Bless the young man for enduring such bullying from one is supposed to serve and protect.