INTERNAL REPORT ASSAILS MARINES IN BORDER KILLING

Anti-drug patrol that shot teen seen as inadequately trained Associated
Press

EL PASO, Texas -- Marines involved in the killing of a teen-age goatherd
during an anti-drug patrol along the Mexican border were not adequately
trained for an armed operation among civilians, the military concluded in an
internal report.

In the harshest official criticism of the operation yet released, the report
also said Marine commanders did not do enough to prevent the encounter that
ended in the shooting death of 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez Jr.

The mission "appears to have been viewed at every level of Marine Corps
command as more of a training opportunity than a real world deployment,"
wrote retired Marine Maj. Gen. John T. Coyne, who investigated the shooting.

The report was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the San
Antonio Current, a weekly newspaper, and by Common Sense for Drug Policy, a
nonprofit group in Falls Church, Va.

"The whole sense of the report was that the military should not be involved
in domestic law enforcement," said Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense
for Drug Policy. "They are not prepared for it. They're not trained for it.
They're inappropriate for it."

The Marine Corps submitted an internal response, also released under the
Freedom of Information Act, in which it disputed Coyne's conclusions.

Hernandez was killed May 20, 1997, while herding goats along the Rio Grande
near Redford, 200 miles southeast of El Paso.

The military said that he fired his .22-caliber rifle twice at members of a
Marine patrol assigned to guard against smuggling along the border, and that
he had raised the weapon to fire a third time when Cpl. Clemente Banuelos
shot him.

Relatives said Hernandez carried the rifle to protect his livestock from
wild dogs and to shoot targets.

Military patrols along the border were suspended after the shooting. No
criminal or military disciplinary charges were filed against the Marines,
and they were cleared by both state and federal grand juries. The Hernandez
family received a $1 million settlement from the government.

Checked-by: Don Beck