1 Dead in Border Patrol Shooting in California

A protective vest with identifying markings worn by Border Patrol is seen during a press conference at the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol headquarters in Washington on July 21, 2020. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

A shooting in San Diego, California, involving U.S. Border Patrol personnel left one person dead and five others injured on Friday.

Aaron Heitke, the chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s San Diego sector announced that the incident occurred around 5:45 p.m. local time.

“A U.S. Border Patrol agent assigned to the San Diego sector was involved in the on-duty shooting of a subject close to the international border near the Las Americas Premium Outlets [mall],” he said.

The subject was pronounced dead by responding medical personnel around 6:25 p.m.

According to FOX 5 of San Diego and City News Service, the shooting occurred near the San Ysidro crossing into Mexico.

“This is an ongoing investigation, further updates will follow as they become available,” Heitke said.

San Diego Police Department (SDPD) Homicide Unit Lt. Andra Brown told NBC7 that the deceased person is a male who is not a U.S. citizen. He was involved in a conflict with the Border Patrol agent on federal property and in an area closed to the public, before the agent fired shots, the outlet reported Brown as saying. The cause of the conflict is unclear.

The SDPD did not identify the man and withheld details of his U.S. immigration status. The department said that its officers were not involved in the incident.

Brown also said that investigators are seeing whether security cameras were in the area, and noted that the Border Patrol agent was not seriously injured.