Death Records Now

Christian Ramirez of American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that tracks border violence, said the blame lies on both sides of the border. Ramirez said smuggling cartels trying to push their goods into the U.S. are clashing with an ever-expanding collection of law enforcement officers on the U.S. side, leaving illegal immigrants simply looking for work caught in the crossfire.

"Border Patrol responds with more arms, more personnel, and drug cartels respond in kind. It’s a cycle of violence that we need to figure out how to stop," he said.

A total of 260 agents fired their weapons in 213 instances from 2006 to 2010, wounding an additional 37 people, according to a database obtained from Customs and Border Protection through the Freedom of Information Act. The records reflect all Border Patrol encounters around the country, but Customs spokesman Lloyd Easterling said most of those occurred along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Fourteen Border Patrol agents died in the line of duty during that time period, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks the death of law enforcement officers. Two died from gunshot wounds, the rest of various causes ranging from heat exhaustion to being intentionally struck by a car.

Jennifer Allen, executive director of the Border Action Network, a Tucson-based civil rights group that helps immigrants, said the numbers show that agents are being reckless when responding to illegal immigrants crossing the border. She said she understands that drug cartels and human smugglers can be violent, but she said agents are approaching any illegal immigrant crossing into the U.S. with a "heavy-handed" approach that leads to so many deaths and injuries.

Hipolito Acosta, who patrolled the border for several federal agencies before retiring in 2005, said the number of immigrants killed or wounded was low considering the dangers and activity levels along the border. He said they encounter so many dangerous situations with smugglers that they must approach every encounter expecting the worse.

"If you look at the narcotics interdictions along the border, if you look at the number of weapons that are found, that’s not a high number," Acosta said.

Allen said she has long complained to Border Patrol officials that they need a more comprehensive training program so agents know how to better distinguish between armed smugglers and people looking to enter the country to live and work.

A 2007 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the Border Patrol "exhibits attributes of an effective training program." But it found that the ratio of young, inexperienced agents to experienced supervisors was often too high.

Easterling said they have focused on hiring more experienced supervisors and trainers to show the new agents how and when to use deadly force. He said agents are frequently outmanned by smuggling operations.

"We don’t want any of this going on, clearly," he said. "But we realize that these organizations are not giving up without a fight. In defense of themselves, their partners and innocent third parties, our agents will respond."
How soon before La Raza , Obama and Mexico sue the agent and his family ?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-12-21-border21_ST_N.htm
crossing the border was not a capital crime punishable by death.Tell your people to stop allowing drug smugglers to bring them in.

As far as I’m concerned our Border Patrol isn’t being heavy handed enough. It’s a terrible tragedy for one of our officers to die. We need military troops on the border with orders to shoot to kill. Believe me that would cause the drug, human smugglers to think twice before attempting to cross into the USA. It would also lower the numbers of illegal aliens crossing the desert to sneak into our country. A win/win solution.

Was this a cover-up by the USMC or was it an accident read the story:Family raises questions about Marine’s death in Africa

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By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
On the afternoon of March 23, two superiors took a 21-year-old Marine, Lance Cpl. Dustin Canham, into a tent at Camp Lemonier, a U.S. base in the rocky desert of the Horn of Africa.

Exactly what happened inside remains unclear, except this: Canham died.

In letters, the Marines told Canham’s family he collapsed while exercising. His father and his 19-year-old widow believe that’s half the story. They were told by Canham’s fellow Marines that he was being punished for accidentally chipping another Marine’s tooth. They suspect he might have dropped dead from being forced to work out too hard.

A military autopsy determined the manner of death to be "natural" and said Canham had a mildly enlarged heart. But the medical examiners were not told the circumstances of Canham’s death and thus did not consider heat exhaustion as a possible cause, The Associated Press has learned.

After the AP raised questions last week, Armed Forces Medical Examiner Craig T. Mallak and the deputy medical examiner who performed the autopsy, Cmdr. Timothy D. Monaghan, told the family they would take another look at Canham’s case.

"They try to make it sound routine, but there’s nothing routine about taking one Marine aside," said Canham’s widow, Devyn. "Why wouldn’t they be doing their daily exercises together?"

The AP has also learned that one of the two superiors who brought Canham into the tent, Sgt. Jesus Diaz, was reassigned out of the platoon following the death.

A spokeswoman at Marine Corps headquarters declined to comment, citing the continuing investigation, as did representatives of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which is conducting its own inquiry. The AP was unable to locate contact information for Diaz or the other superior, Cpl. Richard Abril.

Canham, 21, of Lake Stevens, had arrived at Camp Lemonier, in the African nation of Djibouti, about a week earlier. The U.S. maintains the 500-acre base for its Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, which blends traditional security and training roles with humanitarian efforts to combat terrorism.

Canham was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve’s 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group, out of Portland, Ore., but was primarily based at Fort Lewis. In Djibouti, he was serving with the 8th Provisional Security Company, installing and repairing fuel equipment.

None of his platoon mates would comment when contacted by the AP. But some did speak with Devyn, telling her that earlier in the day, Dustin was unloading a truck with other Marines when they began joking around and throwing rocks at each other. Dustin chipped another Marine’s tooth, she said.

Shortly before 4 p.m., Diaz and Abril brought Canham into a tent. Dustin soon collapsed; other Marines saw Diaz run out of the tent to get help, Devyn said. Resuscitation efforts failed. He was pronounced dead at the camp’s medical clinic at 5:12 p.m.

One letter to the family, written by Lt. Col. J.R. Hill of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, said, "Dustin was in his air-conditioned quarters while exercising when he unexpectedly collapsed," and added that "the Marines who found him" immediately called for help.

Another, written by Lt. Col. Thomas E. Foos, commanding officer of 8th Provisional Security Company, and Capt. Craig E. Harris, commander of Alpha Company at Lemonier, said, "Dustin was exercising with his fire team leader in his tent doing what we call the Daily Seven" _ an exercise routine that includes push-ups and core-body work _ and that he collapsed after just two or three minutes.

None of the letters explained why Canham was in the tent with two superiors. Devyn Canham said three Marines told her it was not Dustin’s own tent, but another that might not have been air-conditioned. The high temperature that afternoon neared the mid-90s.

Dustin’s father, Mark Canham, said an investigator confirmed to him that Dustin was doing physical training in lieu of receiving a black mark on his record, typically referred to as a "page 11," when he died. Devyn said no military officials have told her that.

The nine-page autopsy report makes no mention of Canham exercising; it says merely that he collapsed while in his quarters. Canham’s heart weighed 450 grams, at the top of the normal range.

The medical examiner listed the cause of death as a thickening of the left ventricular wall, a condition sometimes found in endurance athletes. Canham was in excellent shape, his family said.

"His enlarged heart and hypertrophic left ventricular wall left him vulnerable to disruption of life-sustaining cardiac rhythms," Monaghan concluded.

Heat exhaustion can cause such a disruption.

Dr. Allen Burke, director of the Kernan Hospital Pathology Laboratory at the University of Maryland, provided a consultation for the autopsy. He agreed with the finding about Dustin’s heart condition, but said examination did "not disclose an anatomic cause of death."

Although Mark Canham signed a privacy waiver authorizing the military to discuss the autopsy with the AP, the military would not allow an interview with the pathologists. The AP instead gave its questions to Mark Canham, who asked them of Monaghan last week.

According to Mark Canham, Monaghan said that he was unaware Dustin had been exercising or that he was being punished when he died, and that he had no reason to suspect heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Mallak confirmed that, Devyn and her lawyer said.

Mark Canham has spent the past two months trying to contact his son’s friends in the Marines, investigators and members of Congress to pry loose any information he can.

"I just want to know what happened," he said. "I wish I could let the whole thing go. But that would be a grave injustice to my son."

(© 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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It sounds like he was being punished–if true–physical training is not something that is routine when you are out of a training enviroment–but it is not unheard of–

It is possible this was happening–but it does not sound like it is anything more than that–It does not sound like murder–it sounds like an accident.

High school athletes die just like this –all the time.

They are working out and their heart gives out–because of some undiagnosed heart condition.

I feel sorry for the family but it does not sound like it was premeditated.