Native American tribal leaders in Arizona are protesting a US attorney’s decision not to prosecute federal border agents who shot dead an unarmed tribe member on their reservation in May.
Raymond Mattia was killed when the agents responded to a call for help by tribal police of the Tohono O’odham Nation after they received reports of shots fired in the Menagers Dam community near the US-Mexico border.
Three agents of the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) fired at the 58-year-old outside a residence, and later claimed they believed he had thrown something at an officer and was brandishing a gun.
Bodycam footage released in June showed Mattia had no firearm. The Pima county medical examiner determined he received nine gunshot wounds, while an accompanying toxicology report showed Mattia had a high blood alcohol level and drugs in his system, including amphetamine and oxycodone.
On Friday, the tribe’s chair Verlon Jose, and vice-chair Carla Johnson, released a statement saying they might request a congressional inquiry into the decision by the Arizona state attorney’s office not to bring charges.
“There are countless questions left unanswered by this decision. As a result, we cannot and will not accept the US attorney’s decision,” the statement said, adding that tribal leaders believed it was “a travesty of justice”.
In its own statement, the US attorney’s office said it met Mattia’s family last month to explain the decision.
“The agents’ use of force under the facts and circumstances presented in this case does not rise to the level of a federal criminal civil rights violation or a criminal violation assimilated under Arizona law,” it said.
“We stand by our conclusion, and we hear the chairman’s frustration.”
The Guardian was unable to reach CBP for comment. The agency’s office of professional responsibility is investigating the shooting but has so far not released any findings. Bodycam video was recorded by all three agents who fired their weapons, and by at least seven others who were present.
Footage released in the summer showed Mattia throwing a sheathed machete at the foot of a tribal officer and then holding out his arm, actions the CBP mentioned in an account of events.
After Mattia was shot, an agent shouted: “He’s still got a gun in his hand.” Several agents were heard repeatedly asking whether anybody had found a firearm.
CBP agents were involved in another fatal shooting near Las Cruces, New Mexico, in April after stopping a male driver who led them on a 23-mile chase.
The family of an eight-year-old girl from Panama who died in CBP custody in Texas in May say negligence by the agency led to her demise. They allege Anadith Reyes Álvarez was denied hospital care despite having an abnormally high fever and exhibiting signs of distress during nine days of detention at a facility in Harlingen.
