Border agents shoot man driving stolen SUV

By Keith Darcé, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/apr/18/border-agents-shoot-man-driving-stolen-suv/

Mike Lee, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 12:04 a.m.

SAN YSIDRO — Federal officers shot and injured a man Saturday morning after he drove through the San Ysidro border crossing in a stolen SUV, authorities said.

The man was taken by ambulance to UCSD Medical Center, a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department dispatcher said.

San Diego police said Saturday night that the man’s injuries were not considered life-threatening. He had not been identified and was under guard at the trauma center. A spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Diego said his office was told by U.S. officials that the man is not a Mexican citizen.

The incident started just before 9 a.m. when a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent asked the driver of a Chevy Tahoe for his identification and the man said he did not have it with him, San Diego police said.

The agent told the driver to pull his vehicle into an area for secondary inspection. Instead, the man sped toward exit lanes on the west side of the port of entry, said police Lt. Kevin Rooney.

Rooney said that as the man drove in a lane enclosed by cement barriers, he rammed an occupied vehicle in front of him in an attempt to make it to the freeway.

Agents reached the driver’s door and tried to stop him. But the man put the SUV in reverse and drove south at about 30 mph, police said. Two agents shot at the driver to prevent him from hitting more cars, Rooney said. He said the driver was struck by one round and crashed into a barricade.

Names of the agents were not released. One has been with the agency for three years and the other for seven, police said.

The Tahoe was reported stolen March 1 in Colorado Springs, Colo. A California plate on the SUV belongs to another vehicle, Rooney said.

The port of entry remained open, but several lanes were closed for the investigation, snarling traffic in the heavily traveled border region.

Staff writer Sandra Dibble contributed to this report.