A new video shows Anastacio Hernadez-Rojas lying on the ground in the fetal position, circled by at least a dozen federal agents as one repeatedly shocks him with an electric stun gun.
The video was shot by a passer-by and was obtained by the lawyer for the Hernandez-Rojas family as they push on with their wrongful death suit against the US government.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired the video and an interview with the woman who shot it as part of a new documentary. In May 2010, Seattle resident Ashley Young was crossing a bridge from Mexico to the United States. In the "Need to Know" report, Young said that she saw the man lying on the ground was handcuffed. She said she did not witness any evidence of Hernandez-Rojas lashing out at the agents, but they are clearly heard yelling in the video for him to stop resisting. He was then tasered five times while calling for help in Spanish.
She also said that a small crowd had gathered on the bridge and some yelled for the agents to stop. But the officers came along to tell the onlookers to keep walking. One officer demanded that witnesses hand over their cell phones or delete the video they had taken, she said, but she kept walking. Young told PBS she "felt like she watched someone be murdered."
Anastacio Hernadez-Rojas’ death was ruled a 'homicide' by the San Diego medical examiner and was investigated by police, yet no border control agents were charged for their part in the incident.
This will undoubtedly create even more tension, as public outcry about the case has been gaining momentum for two years. It raised serious questions about border agents and what they can potentially do without facing the repercussions of their actions.
The PBS documentary was attempting to draw attention to whether border control has been using excessive force on illegal immigrants after eight people were killed along the border in the past two years.
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A new video, along with an eyewitness account, has emerged that shows the beating and repeated tasering of an illegal immigrant by a large group of border patrol agents just hours before the immigrant's death, according to a report airing tonight on PBS.
The PBS "Need to Know" report, which was the result of a joint project with the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute and has been reviewed by ABC News, features what PBS calls new video of the May 2010 beating of Anastacio Hernandez Rojas.
Rojas, an illegal immigrant, was being transferred back to Mexico when the Customs and Border Protection said he became "combative" and officers had to use a taser to "subdue the individual and maintain officer safety."
But the new video, taken from an overpass, appears to show a group of more than a dozen border patrol agents surrounding Rojas, who is already on the ground, as he is struck repeatedly by some officers and then tasered multiple times. Rojas would later die in a nearby hospital. According to multiple purported eyewitnesses featured in the PBS report, it was clear Rojas was not resisting as he was beaten. In another video that captured the incident, a man identified by PBS as Rojas can be heard screaming for help in Spanish.
CLICK HERE to see a preview of the story and watch the full report tonight on PBS.
Though the death was ruled a "homicide" by the San Diego medical examiner and the incident was investigated by the San Diego Police Department, no border patrol agents were charged with a crime, PBS said.
The CBP declined an interview with PBS for their report and a spokesperson for the department declined ABC News' requests for comment as well, citing an ongoing investigation. Instead, the spokesperson offered the following statement:
"CBP stresses honor and integrity in every aspect of our mission. CBP employees and officers perform their duties with honor and distinction, working tirelessly every day to keep our country safe. We do not tolerate abuse within our ranks, and we fully cooperate with any criminal or administrative investigations of alleged misconduct by any of our personnel, on or off duty." Source
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