Jury selected for border agent’s 2nd trial in teen’s killing
TUCSON, Ariz. — Federal prosecutors will once again try a U.S. Border Patrol agent who killed a 16-year-old boy in a cross-border shooting. The agent was acquitted earlier this year of murder, but a jury deadlocked on manslaughter charges.
A jury was selected Tuesday and opening arguments are scheduled Wednesday in the second trial of Lonnie Swartz, five years since he fatally shot Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez through a border fence dividing Arizona and Mexico.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has declined to comment on why it decided to pursue manslaughter charges again.
It’s extremely rare for a Border Patrol agent to be criminally charged in circumstances involving a use of force case, but the agency was under heavy scrutiny over violent incidents when Swartz was first indicted in 2015, including many involving rock-throwers.