A federal judge has ruled the family of a Mexican teen fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent from across the U.S.-Mexico border can continue its lawsuit.
The civil rights case against the agent who shot him, Lonnie Swartz, will go forward after U.S. District Court Judge Raner C. Collins denied a part of his motion to dismiss the case. Swartz claimed 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez wasn't protected by the U.S. Constitution because he was in Mexico when he was shot.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of the boy's mother. Elena Rodriguez was in Nogales, Sonora, near a border fence when Swartz shot him from Nogales, Arizona, on Oct. 10, 2012.
The Border Patrol has said Swartz was defending himself against rock-throwers. Elena Rodriguez's family says he wasn't involved in any wrongdoing.
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