Federal officials said a 24-year-old Guatemalan woman hung for more than 20 minutes atop the U.S.-Mexico border wall before falling and dying earlier this month.
The news follows a preliminary investigation into the March 21 incident, according to a news release issued Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The information was released by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which reviewed radio traffic, footage from remote video surveillance systems, body-worn camera footage, and interviews with migrants and CBP personnel , federal officials said.
San Diego police and the county medical examiner’s office are investigating the woman’s death. Federal investigators will also look into the incident.
In the press release, U.S. Border Patrol officials said they received a call about a group of people heading toward the border wall, less than 3 miles west of the Otay Mesa port of entry, around 10:27 p.m.
The wall is approximately 30 feet high in the area with two walls – a primary and a secondary – made of metal studs with electrical conduit running across the top. Between the walls is an open space.
Minutes after the group was spotted, a Border Patrol agent arrived between the main and secondary walls. The officer saw the woman on the south side of the secondary wall and told her not to go over the top of the north side and to go down, according to the preliminary investigation.
The woman continued to climb the wall and crossed to the north side, authorities said. She was unable to travel the rest of the distance to the fence.
The officer called the San Diego Fire Department and the woman began screaming for help, officials said. The agent told him help was on the way, according to CBP’s preliminary investigation.
Around 10:35 p.m., an unknown person approached the wall to tell the officer he could get a ladder.
“The officer informed the individual that he could not use any ladders until firefighters arrived,” CBP officials said in the press release.
Around the same time, the agent stopped another migrant who was walking along the south side of the fence.
A second officer arrived from the south side of the wall — the side opposite the woman — followed by a San Diego Fire Department truck, federal officials said.
The truck and the second officer then turned around and headed toward a nearby door that would provide access to the side of the wall the woman was on. Once it arrived at the gate, the truck was unable to make the turn and had to find an alternate route, officials said.
At approximately 10:48 p.m., the woman yelled to the officer on the south side of the wall that she could no longer hold on to the wall. The officer told him to keep holding on while firefighters worked to get there.
The second officer reached the side of the wall where the woman was. The two officers told him that the firefighters were on their way. The woman continued to tell them to “hurry up and she couldn’t hold on any longer,” officials said.
The agent on his side of the wall then left to “meet with other agents and coordinate the transportation of other migrants apprehended in the area,” officials said.
Around 10:54 p.m., the woman fell, hitting her head on the concrete base of the wall. She suffered “massive head trauma” and was bleeding, the officer told dispatchers.
Firefighters arrived at the woman’s home around 11:04 p.m. She died there.
His identity has not been revealed.
CBP officials said they would release footage of the incident once it is “appropriate to do so and does not impact ongoing law enforcement investigations.”
California Daily Newspapers
