ACLU wants $100 million in damages for family of Guatemalan woman shot by Border Patrol
Advocates on behalf of a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent last year want $100 million in damages, The Associated Press reports.
The legal claim on behalf of Claudia Patricia Gómez González, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, comes almost exactly one year after her death. The claim serves as a precursor to a lawsuit.
{mosads}Gómez González, an undocumented immigrant, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas as part of a group of migrants. They were then confronted by a Border Patrol agent.
In a statement after her death, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) said the agent fired his gun after he “came under attack by multiple subjects using blunt objects.”
{mosads}“The agent fired at least one round from his service issued firearm, fatally wounding one of the assailants,” the statement said, referring to Gómez González as “one of the assailants.”
A day later, the CBP reportedly revised its statement, instead calling Gómez González “one member of the group.”
The claim seeks $50 million for each personal injury and $50 million for her wrongful death, the AP reports.
The claim comes in light of increasing numbers of Central American people crossing the nation’s southern border, as well as the deaths of six children in U.S. custody over the past year.
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