Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Pubdate: 10 Sep 1998
Author: Eduardo Montes, The Associated Press

MARINE TRAINING FAULTED IN FATAL BORDER SHOOTING

Military: An internal report says the anti-drug patrol in Texas was
inadequately prepared for armed duty among civilians.

EL PASO, Texas - Marines involved in the killing of a teenage goatherd
during an anti-drug patrol along the Mexican border were not adequately
trained for an armed operation among civilians, the military concluded in
an internal report.

In the harshest official criticism of the operation yet released, the
report also said Marine commanders did not do enough to prevent the
encounter that ended in the shooting death of 18-year-old Esequiel
Hernandez Jr.

The mission "appears to have been viewed at every level of Marine Corps
command as more of a training opportunity than a real-world deployment,"
wrote retired Marine Maj. Gen. John T. Coyne, who investigated the shooting.

The report was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the San
Antonio Current, a weekly newspaper, and by Common Sense for Drug Policy, a
nonprofit group in Falls Church, Va.

"The whole sense of the report was that the military should not be involved
in domestic law enforcement," said Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense
for Drug Policy. "They are not prepared for it. They're not trained for it.
They're inappropriate for it."

The Marine Corps submitted an internal response, also released under the
Freedom of Information Act, in which it disputed Coyne's conclusions.

Hernandez was killed May 20, 1997, while herding goats along the Rio Grande
near Redford, 200 miles southeast of El Paso.

The military said he fired his .22-caliber rifle twice at members of a
Marine Patrol assigned to guard against smuggling along the border, and
that he had raised the weapon to fire a third time when Cpl. Clemente
Banuelos shot him one with an M-16 rifle.

Relatives said Hernandez would never knowingly have shot at anyone and that
he carried the rifle solely to protect his livestock from wild dogs and to
shoot targets.

Military patrols along the border were suspended after the shooting.

No criminal or military disciplinary charges were filed against the
Marines, and they were cleared by both state and federal grand juries. The
Hernandez family received a $1 million settlement from the government.

Coyne said the Marines did not get enough training on the appropriate use
of force among civilians.

He also said mission commander Capt. Lance McDaniel, who was in contact
with the Marine patrol by radio from a command center more than 60 miles
away, was too passive in deferring to Banuelos' judgment. 

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Checked-by: Mike Gogulski