He Wasn't Resisting

The San Diego American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has blasted media coverage of the May 28 death of Anastacio Hernández Rojas following a tasering and alleged beating by U.S. Border Patrol agents at the San Ysidro port of entry. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Hernández died after being tasered by border agents; since that June 1 report, no mention has been made in the paper about the ten-minute beating Hernández allegedly sustained.

Emerging from a June 10 meeting with Mexican officials at the Mexican consulate in San Diego, members of the AFSC and other San Diego–based Latino organizations announced that the consulate has hired U.S. attorneys to represent Hernández's family and that a complete investigation into the facts surrounding his death is warranted.

AFSC officials say they have two witnesses who saw multiple border guards beating Hernández with batons and fists. Another witness, Humberto Navarrete, has provided a video that — though the images are sketchy — records the beating and screams for help from Hernández; shouts of onlookers yell for agents to back off because he was not resisting.

Since the incident, the San Diego County medical examiner's office has ruled the death a homicide, allowing that methamphetamine abuse and hypertension contributed to Hernández's cardiac arrest.

Click here for video of the incident.

Click here for video of Navarrete's June 10 press conference.

Photo: Humberto Navarette at a press conference