Thursday, May 18, 2006

Shooting closes border crossing

A car sits empty near the border after its driver was shot and killed by a U.S. law enforcement officer Thursday. From CNN.Com.

Well, here is one good way to control the border. From CNN.Com:

SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- Authorities shut down a busy U.S-Mexico border crossing Thursday after U.S. authorities shot and killed the driver of a car headed for Mexico, officials said.

The shooting occurred on southbound Interstate 5 around 3:30 p.m. about 50 feet north of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world's busiest border crossing, which links Tijuana, Mexico with San Diego.

The driver, who not immediately identified, was pronounced dead at the scene with multiple gunshot wounds, said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

Footage from TV news helicopters showed a black sport-utility vehicle in the middle of the road with a shattered driver's side window.

There were no immediate reports of any other injuries.

Details about what might have prompted the shooting were not immediately available.

The California Highway Patrol sealed off southbound access to the border and rush-hour traffic backed up for more than a mile.

Wait a minute--the guy was was heading towards Mexico before U.S. authorities shot him? I'm not sure I know what to say about this story, except that the details are so sketchy here. Was the guy in the black SUV armed, and did he fire on U.S. authorities? Or is it now the policy of U.S. border guards to shoot first at vehicles in the U.S. that are approaching the Mexican border, and then ask questions later?

Oh, and by the way--don't you feel safer now that President Bush wants to send 6,000 National Guard troops to watch the US-Mexican border?

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