A La Mesa security guard, who said he mistakenly crossed into Mexico with his registered gun, returned home Tuesday after being held for a year in a Tijuana prison.
Rodney Kevin Dantzler was sentenced to three years and eight months on a gun charge, according to Mexican officials. During a hearing this week, a judge allowed him to complete his time on parole at home, as long as he reports monthly to the court.
“I’m really happy to be home,” Dantzler said Wednesday during a news conference outside the Mountain View Park Community Center in San Diego. He was joined by his mother, Jacqueline Anderson, and his 7-year-old son, as well as members of the San Diego Original Black Panther Party.
On Tuesday morning, Henry Lee Wallace of the Black Panthers shared photos on social media of Dantzler hugging his mother and others as soon as he returned to the U.S. from the PedEast border crossing. “I was very excited,” Dantzler said. “Overwhelmed.”
In March 2023, while driving south on Interstate 5 on his way to visit a friend, Dantzler said he missed the last exit in the U.S. and crossed accidentally with a registered gun into Mexico. Upon entering he was stopped by Mexican officials, and he informed them of the situation.
Dantzler, 28, said he thought they would check his documents and allow him to turn back to San Diego. But that wasn’t the case. Instead he was arrested and sent to a Tijuana prison.
Possession of firearms is illegal in Mexico.
Dantzler, who acknowledged he was unaware of the Mexican laws, recalled how in that moment it went “from regular day to kind of hell in a matter of minutes.”
“I thought I was coming home in the first three days,” he said. “I was kind of torn when it didn’t happen.”
The Black Panther group became involved as soon as they heard about the case. The group helped by providing security across the border to Anderson as she went to advocate for her son, as well as advice and support throughout the entire process, said Yusef Miller with the San Diego chapter.
Miller said he was disappointed with the lack of involvement from elected officials in the case. He said the group reached out to both U.S. and Mexican consulates, as did Dantzler’s lawyers and interpreter. “This is heavy for a mother,” he said. “Not knowing when her child is coming back, a totally different system.”
Anderson on Wednesday thanked everyone who supported her. Last year she started a GoFundMe to raise money for legal expenses. She said many people reached out and shared their stories and similar situations with her.
Amari Dantzler, 7, holds this father’s hand at the news conference.
(Ana Ramirez/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“He made an honest mistake,” she said.
Dantlzer said he didn’t hold any resentment.
“No, not at all,” he said when asked. “They are doing their job at the end of the day and I’m in their home, that’s where they work at, and I understand it by being a security guard. I know you got to do your job.”
