Official calls border shooting `a mistake', then takes it back

By THADDEUS HERRICK
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle San Antonio Bureau

SAN ANTONIO A highranking military official in the war on
drugs called the fatal shooting of Ezequiel Hernandez Jr. "a
mistake," marking the first time the armed services have said the
antinarcotics troops who killed the Presidio High School
sophomore acted in error.

"We don't accept mistakes like that," said Air Force Col. Henry
Hungerbeeler, chief of staff of Joint Task Force6, the group
that coordinates law enforcementmilitary antidrug efforts.
"We're as anxious as anybody to know what investigators have
found."

But when pressed on the comment, Hungerbeeler in an interview
this week retracted it. "I wish I hadn't called it a mistake," he
said.

The military has thus far backed the actions of four camouflaged
Marines who were on a surveillance mission on the TexasMexico
border near Presidio when Hernandez inexplicably fired twice with
a .22caliber rifle. When the youth raised his rifle a third
time, investigators say, Cpl. Clemente Banuelos shot and killed
him with an M16.

"The Marines in this case acted in accordance with the
established rules of engagement and were using lawful self
defense," Maj. Len Ryan said last week from Camp Pendleton,
Calif., where the four Marines involved in the shooting are
stationed.

But investigators say Hernandez, who was tending his family's
goats at the time, was not aiming at the troops when he was
killed. They say he initially fired from a distance of 700 feet
suggesting he may not have known he was firing in the direction
of the troops and then was followed "bush to bush" before
being shot dead.

The Texas Rangers served the commander of JTF6 with a subpoena
last Tuesday in hopes of gathering military documents related to
the May 20 shooting. Local prosecutors, meanwhile, hope to
present evidence to a grand jury in July.

Hungerbeeler did not directly dispute the Marines' version of the
incident, in which they say they acted justifiably. But he said a
death such as Hernandez's can usually be explained by either
criminal intent on the part of the victim or error.

"I certainly haven't seen any criminal intent," Hungerbeeler
said.

Pressed on the issue, Hungerbeeler sought to redirect the focus
of the incident to the two shots investigators say Hernandez
fired in the desert hills near Big Bend National Park. He fired
the shots within shouting distance of his family's cinderblock
home.

"There's nothing that leads me to believe they made a mistake,"
said Hungerbeeler, finally. "But a young man was killed. Why did
he shoot at the Marines?"

The shooting in the tiny town of Redford has sparked vigorous
debate over whether the military should participate in law
enforcement operations. Though troops cannot search, seize or
arrest, they have been employed since the 1980s to assist law
enforcement in the escalating war on drugs.

Critics say the blurring of the lines between the military and
law enforcement makes human and civil rights abuse more likely,
since troops are trained to kill. Backers say the military's
manpower and resources are critical in stemming the tide of
illegal narcotics.

The military is a leading advocate for its expanded antidrug
role. But congressional testimony shows that in the early stages
even top armed services officials acknowledged the incongruities
of military and police training.

Addressing a panel of the House Armed Services Committee in 1989,
just months before the formation of JTF6, now retired Lt. Gen.
Thomas Kelly likened the troops involved in the antidrug effort
to an infantry soldier who when confronted with a hostage
situation "just flips a grenade through the door."

"We're learning to work with law enforcement agencies and there's
a difficulty in doing that, and it's a cultural difficulty,"
Kelly told the subcommittee. "When you deal with police officers,
they think in terms of going to court and we don't."

"Such `cultural difficulties' are part of what makes the expanded
use of the military in drug interdiction so potentially
dangerous," writes University of Texas doctoral candidate Timothy
Dunn in his book, The Militarization of the Border. Dunn cites
Kelly's comments to the House subcommittee.

But according to Hungerbeeler, troops have learned to work
effectively with law enforcement since the creation of JTF6, not
by imitating law enforcement officers but rather by maintaining
their limited military role. That role is to be the "eyes and
ears" of law enforcement, he said, nothing more.

"We work well together by keeping our separate and distinct
roles," said Hungerbeeler. "We're out there to observe. If we are
observed in the process, we haven't done our job."