Man Shot By Border Patrol In Arizona Is Identified

December 08, 2011

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Officials have identified a man shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent Tuesday night as Byron Neftalí Sosa Orellana, 28, a Guatemalan national from Río Hondo-Zacapa.

The Border Patrol said Neftalí was assaulting an agent and a police dog near Sells on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation when he was killed. FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson said the bureau is investigating the killing as an assault on a federal officer.

Tribal police are investigating the case as a shooting.

Recent past incidences in Arizona include:

November 2010: A Border Patrol agent on horseback shoots an apprehended illegal migrant in the stomach near Nogales. The man survived.

January 2011: A 17-year-old boy whom agents reported was throwing rocks at agents was shot and fell from the border wall in Nogales onto the Mexico side. His friends took him to a hospital where he was reported dead.

March 2011: An agent shot and killed a 19-year-old man as he tried to flee back into Mexico near Douglas, Ariz.. Rocks were being thrown at that agent, though it was unclear whether the victim, Carlos LaMadrid, or one of his accomplices had thrown them in an attempt to keep the agent from continuing the chase.