A U.S. Border Patrol sniper from a special operations tactical unit shot and killed an armed bandit Sunday morning from long distance when the suspect, who was part of a group that was allegedly robbing migrants in the Otay Mountain Wilderness area, pointed a cocked handgun at one of the victims, federal officials said Thursday.
The man killed by the sniper’s round was a 32-year-old Mexican citizen, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol’s parent agency, which provided new details adding to the limited information released earlier in the week.
The name of the man who was killed was not released.
The fatal shooting occurred in a remote location about 5 miles east of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, near where a paved road winds through the mountains, CBP said.
A Border Patrol tactical unit — known by the acronym BORTAC — was monitoring the area because of recent reports the agency had received of migrants being robbed or assaulted by armed groups, according to the CBP statement. One small group of BORTAC agents was hiding in a ravine near the paved road about 70 yards north of the border, while another group of agents, including the sniper, was on a ridge about 275 yards away.
A little before 7 a.m., a group of at least 17 migrants was walking along the paved road when four individuals approached them, threatened them and demanded money, CBP officials said, citing both the observations of the concealed BORTAC agents and information they later learned from interviewing the migrants.
At least one of the alleged robbers was armed with a handgun that he allegedly pointed at one of the migrants after chambering a round, according to the CBP statement. That’s when the BORTAC sniper fired a single shot, striking and killing the alleged gunman.
Medics from Border Patrol reached the man about 15 minutes later, and they, along with Cal Fire San Diego medics, spent more than an hour attempting to revive the man, CBP said. But a Sharp Grossmont doctor pronounced him dead over the phone around 8:15 a.m. after consulting with the medics at the scene.
Border Patrol agents apprehended 17 migrants, but the three other alleged robbers fled back into Mexico, CBP said.
Border Patrol officials have acknowledged armed bandit groups targeting migrants along the San Diego-Mexico border, mostly in the Otay Mountain Wilderness, dating back more than a year.
In September 2022, agents found three migrants in the area who had been shot. They said they were shot by bandits on the Mexican side of the border before crossing into the U.S.
Last April, the Border Patrol reported a string of at least three armed robberies or assaults in the area. The agency provided surveillance footage appearing to show a bandit armed with a rifle and provided photos of a revolver and two rifles that agents had recently recovered in the area.
In August, Border Patrol agents reported being shot at while trying to apprehend a migrant group. No injuries were reported. The agency said that within a few days of that shooting, National Guard troops reported seeing an armed individual climb the international border fence in the same area, and two people were seen in the area armed with rifles.
Last month, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens shared surveillance photos purporting to show armed bandits robbing a migrant group attempting to enter the country. Agency officials said the incident depicted in the photos occurred Feb. 25 a few miles east of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation of Sunday’s shooting. The FBI and CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility are also investigating, and CBP’s National Use of Force Review Board will also review the shooting.
CBP said it is committed to releasing body-worn camera footage of the shooting “as soon as is appropriate to do so and without impacting the ongoing law enforcement investigations.”
