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Border Patrol Agent Clinging To Moving Car Fatally Shoots Driver Through Her Windshield
Photo by Arthur Eugene Preston via Shutterstock
A Border Patrol agent fatally shot a 32-year-old woman in San Diego county through her windshield on Friday. Authorities said the woman had hit him with her car and then continued to drive with the agent on her hood.
The shooting happened in Chula Vista just north of the border around 1 pm yesterday in full view of witnesses. Valeria Alvarado, a mother of five and local resident, was declared dead at the scene, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
The plainclothes agent was in the neighborhood to serve a felony warrant to someone else when he was hit by Alvarado's car, authorities told the newspaper. He clung to the car as it continued moving several hundred yards before he fired at Alvarado.
"Fearing for his life, he discharged his weapon to get the vehicle to stop," Border Patrol Deputy Chief Rodney Scott told the Union-Tribune.
Alvarado had five children ranging from age 3 to 17. She grew up in Chula Vista, but she currently lived in a neighborhood in San Diego called Southcrest.
Witnesses gave different accounts about what they saw to the Union-Tribune. Some said they saw the agent on the hood of the moving car, while others did not.
Immigrant rights activists and family members were troubled by the circumstances of the shooting. Alvarado's husband Gilbert Alvarado told the Associated Pres: "I love her to the fullest. That's my heart. Where's the evidence my wife threatened a trained officer? I want justice."
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