Border Agent Gets 30-Day Suspension for Shooting at Van Full of Immigrants

A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been suspended without pay for at least 30 days for wrongly firing his service handgun last May into a van filled with undocumented immigrants, the chief patrol officer in San Diego said Thursday.

Two van occupants--a 16-year-old Mexican boy and a 25-year-old Salvadoran woman--were struck and seriously injured after the agent fired three bullets from his .357 magnum at the van as it accelerated away from him along a shoulder of Interstate 5.

The agent, identified by sources as Michael Paul Ostrander, 38, a six-year veteran of the force at the time of the shooting, will begin serving the suspension Monday, said Gustavo de la Vina, chief Border Patrol agent in San Diego, who said he decided to impose the penalty based on the recommendation of his deputy.

The high-profile incident, one of a number of controversial shootings of immigrants last year by U.S. law enforcement officers in the San Diego area, prompted denunciations among activists and others in both the United States and Mexico. However, both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement investigators determined there were no grounds for a criminal prosecution of the officer.

But De la Vina said that Border Patrol supervisors found that the agent had violated the patrol’s internal deadly force guidelines, which, like those of other law enforcement agencies, call on officers to fire weapons only to save their lives or the lives of others. Agents are forbidden from firing solely to stop suspects from fleeing.

Police said that agent Ostrander told investigators he feared for his personal safety--apparently mistakenly thinking that the van was backing up toward him--and fired in an effort to stop the vehicle, possibly by blowing out its tires. But investigators said the vehicle was accelerating away from the agent when he fired.

Ostrander will be suspended without pay for “a little more than” 30 days, said De la Vina, who declined to be more specific. But De la Vina, citing the agent’s “outstanding service record,” stated his belief that the officer had acted in “good faith” and wasn’t motivated by “malicious intent.” The agent could have faced dismissal or a more lengthy suspension, De la Vina said.

Immigrant advocates said Thursday that a 30-day suspension, while a substantial penalty, was insufficient punishment for what they say was a reckless act that seriously endangered the lives of at least 10 people who were inside the van.

“It (four weeks) is not anywhere near enough,” said Roberto Martinez, border representative in San Diego for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group. “They have to send a stronger message to these agents that they just can’t go around shooting people indiscriminately.”

Critics in the border area have long charged that Border Patrol officers have acted with “impunity”--an assertion denied by De la Vina and other patrol officials, who say that wrongdoers like agent Ostrander have been punished and will continue to face discipline.

Federal prosecutors were still reviewing the results of FBI investigations into at least two other recent controversial Border Patrol cases--the shooting death of a 17-year-old Mexican citizen in San Diego last September, and the November shooting of a 15-year-old Mexicali boy who was hit as he sat atop the border fence separating Calexico, Calif., from Mexicali, Mexico.

In both cases, witnesses have disputed contentions by Border Patrol officers that shots were fired in self-defense.

The van shooting occurred in the early-morning darkness of May 25, after agent Ostrander and his partner, cruising north along I-5 in a Border Patrol sedan, stopped the van at a spot about 6 miles north of the border. Agent Ostrander approached the vehicle on foot, opening fire when the van suddenly lurched forward, authorities said.

Struck by bullets were Francisco Ricardo Carbajal, 16, a Mexican citizen who suffered a shattered jaw, and Lilian Pineda, a 25-year-old El Salvadoran woman, who was shot in her right arm. Both have filed civil claims against the U.S. government, seeking more than $1 million in damages each based on the agent’s alleged negligence.

Agent Ostrander was placed on paid administrative leave immediately after the shooting. He was returned to full-time duty in February, almost nine months after the shooting, authorities said.