Published Tuesday, June 6, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Agents defend actions in raid
Eli n lawyer disputes accounts
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
Herald Staff Writer
SEE ALSO
Miami relatives seek reunion with Eli n
Letter from Eli n Gonz lez's Miami relatives to Juan Miguel Gonz lez's attorney, Gregory Craig
Eli n protesters' charges are reduced
Previous coverage
A Border Patrol agent says he never ''purposefully'' pointed his submachine gun at Eli n Gonz lez during the April raid to take the boy from his Miami relatives' home; and five other agents insist that none of them used pepper spray or foul language while they were inside the house.
In debriefing reports released by the Justice Department Monday, three agents also said they put their submachine guns on ``safety'' after the raid began but before they entered the house, and one appears to report that the agent who knocked on the door did not give the agreed-upon signal to force the entrance.
The reports give the official version of the raid from the perspective of each of the six Border Patrol Tactical Unit members who entered the Little Havana home of Eli n's great-uncle L zaro Gonz lez to remove the child. People inside the house have accused the agents of threatening to shoot people, swearing at them and breaking furniture needlessly during the raid.
A summary of the men's statements said none used profanity, threatened to shoot or used chemical irritants, and added that the three doors broken during the lightning raid had to be kicked open because they were locked.
``News footage of the operation clearly shows that the team members acted with discipline and restraint . . . as they entered the Gonz lez home,'' said the summary. ``This report indicates that this same level of professionalism and control was maintained during the rest of the operation.''
THEY `MISREPRESENT'
People inside the house called the reports ``spin'' and challenged their conclusions.
``They really are trying to misrepresent the whole thing,'' said Cuban-American businessman Carlos de la Cruz, who was in the house during the raid. ``They are making this sound as if this is a beginning of a cotillion.''
On the key dispute surrounding the raid -- the photograph of one helmeted and goggled agent pointing a submachine gun in the direction of Donato Dalrymple as he held Eli n in his arms -- the agent said he was simply searching the room for the 6-year-old child.
``As I moved into the room, I was using the `third eye' search technique. This technique ensures that the muzzle of the weapon is pointed in the same general direction that the weapon handler is looking,'' the agent wrote. ``I never purposefully pointed my weapon'' at Eli n or Dalrymple, he added.
``Their report is flat wrong . . . Of course they were pointing the gun at him,'' said family lawyer Kendall Coffey, who was also in the house. ``It was a weapon of extraordinary force, a weapon used to deal with terrorists.''
The Associated Press photograph showed the agent's Heckler & Koch MP-5 submachine gun was on safety and could not have fired. But three of the agents' reports said they had switched their weapons to safety only as they waited outside the house, because of fear that jostling from crowd members could trigger an accidental discharge.
INS CONFUSION
One agent also reported apparent confusion as an Immigration and Naturalization agent repeatedly knocked on the front door at the Gonz lez home and received no reply. The agent was supposed to step off the steps in front of the door as a signal for a forced entry.
``The SSA fell from the porch. Observing how the SSA left the porch, I believed that he had been pushed or shoved or may have slipped. At that time I loudly shouted `Breach, Breach,' '' said the agent, giving the order to bust down the door.
All of the agents reported that as they entered they found a couch had been rolled in front of the door to block access. Almost all also stumbled over a cable that turned out to be connected to television camera of NBC News photographer Tony Zumbado.
The six agents say they never touched Zumbado, though one admitted he accidentally stepped on what he later learned was the camera. Zumbado and other witnesses say one agent punched and kicked Zumbado on the head and back.
``He got nailed. They whooped him,'' Gonz lez family friend Roberto Curbelo told The Herald Monday.
Coffey also contradicted the claims that the agent never used pepper spray during the raid. ``It was clearly inside the house,'' he said. ``I saw a 5-year-old in convulsions from the spray,'' he added, referring to Eli n's cousin Lazarito Martell.
Family friend Curbelo said he heard one of the agents shout at Marisleysis Gonz lez, Eli n's cousin, ``where is the f.....g boy'' as the Border Patrol team began searching the house. Dalrymple also claimed another agent used a profanity as the team left the bedroom.
GRAB ATTEMPT
One agent's description also confirmed previous Herald reports that a Cuban exile outside the house made a last minute effort to grab Eli n away from the agents as they were leaving the house.
The man ``took hold of the [agent holding Eli n] and attempted to take Eli n from her by pulling her toward him and into the bush,'' the agent's report said. ``I came to her aid with another Border Patrol agent . . . he immediately released his hold. I had no physical or verbal contact with this man.'' The man remains officially unidentified.
One agent confirmed that a closet door broke and that part of Eli n's bed came off as he searched a room for the Cuban shipwreck survivor, but said the damage was accidental.
Another agent said he recognized a man in the house, whose name was blacked out of the report, as a member of the Latin Kings youth gang ``who was providing security inside the Gonz lez home.'' But he did not say whether the suspect had done anything untoward.
One agent also said he had used no profanity and reported that when an unidentified woman outside the house asked him what he was doing, he replied ``We have come to get Eli n and are taking him to his dad.''
Another agent reported twice kicking the door to the bedroom where Eli n was found. The agent said his first ``mule kick'' did not open the door, though he said ``I felt as though my foot had penetrated the door.'' His second kick opened the door. ``I do not recall any debris in the doorway area,'' he noted.
An AP photo of the agent entering the room showed the damaged door still hanging on its hinges. During a later tour of the house, the lower half of the door could be seen lying on the floor. |
