May 23 (UPI) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that three of their agents shot and killed a man in Arizona after the man allegedly threw an object at them.
The agency said Monday that its Tucson agents were assisting the Tohono O’odham Nation Police Department in responding to reports of shots fired at an individual’s residence.
When they arrived they found a man outside of a residence and began to approach at which point the agency said the man threw an object toward an officer which landed “a few feet from the officer’s feet.”
“Shortly after the individual threw the object, he abruptly extended his right arm away from his body and three agents fired their service weapons, striking the individual several times,” CBP said.
The man fell to the ground after he was shot and later pronounced dead at St. Mary’s Hospital.
“The agents involved in the incident are on administrative leave, pursuant to standard practice at this point in an investigation following a use of deadly force,” the CBP said in a statement. “All three agents who discharged their weapons and seven additional agents activated their body worn cameras during the incident.”
The incident comes after an 8-year-old girl died in CBP custody in Texas last week.
“Emergency Medical Services were called to the station and transported her to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead,” the brief statement said.
That incident is under investigation headed by the Office of Professional Responsibility. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the Harlingen Police Department were also notified, CBP said.
The girl died a week after Angel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza, a 17-year-old unaccompanied Honduran migrant, also died while in U.S. custody.
Espinoza was pronounced dead May 10 at Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor, Fla., where he was transported that morning after he was found unconscious at a local shelter.