Tohono O'odham Nation leaders say they plan to seek redress for an “unjust” decision by federal prosecutors not to file charges against Border Patrol, who shot and killed a senior tribal member in his front yard on May 18.
U.S. Attorney’s Office representatives recently met with the family of deceased shooting victim Raymond Mattia, 58, in Sells, Ariz., to explain the decision after a five-month investigation.
On Oct. 13, Tohono O'odham Nation executive chairman Verlon Jose and vice-chairman Carla Johnson issued a joint statement condemning the U.S. Attorney’s decision as a “travesty of justice.”
“The facts speak for themselves, and they do not support the U.S. Attorney’s decision—Mr. Mattia was an unarmed man in his own front yard,” Mr. Jose and Ms. Johnson wrote.
“There are countless questions left unanswered by this decision. As a result, we cannot and will not accept the U.S. Attorney’s decision.”
On the night of May 18, Mr. Mattia reportedly called the Tohono O'odham Nation Police Department (TOPD) to report illegal migrants on his property near Arizona’s southern border.
TOPD then called Border Patrol for backup in response to a report of shots fired near Mr. Mattia’s property around 9 p.m.
At least 10 responding Border Patrol agents captured the events leading up to the lethal encounter on their body-worn cameras.
In late July, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released video footage depicting agents with weapons drawn and shining flashlights on Raymond Mattia as he began to approach them.
Early in the encounter, Mr. Mattia tosses an object, later determined to be a sheathed machete, toward the advancing agents.
The object lands on the ground in front of them. As Border Patrol shouts at him to take his right hand out of his pocket, he complies abruptly, holding a dark object.
Here, agents begin firing at him, and Mr. Mattia falls to the ground face down and remains unresponsive.
Mr. Mattia dies at the scene despite Border Patrol efforts to revive him at the scene.
Shot Nine Times
An autopsy report showed that Mr. Mattia died after being shot nine times. However, it is still unclear from the investigation exactly how many shots were fired at him.“We asked how many shots were at Raymond,” Mr. Mattia’s niece, Yvonne Navarez, told The Epoch Times. “They refused to answer”—except that the number was “substantial.”
Ms. Navarez said she was present at the meeting with federal prosecutors in Sells in late September and was told Border Patrol felt they were in “imminent danger” by Mr. Mattia’s actions.
Ms. Navarez said she kept pressing for answers, telling the officials that her uncle “didn’t take his [right] hand out of his pocket toward them. He pulled his hand out to the right.
“So I asked, was anybody standing to the right of him who [was in] imminent danger? They refused to answer that as well,” she said.
“When we asked questions, it felt like they were defending Border Patrol.”
The Epoch Times could not immediately reach CBP and TOPD for comment regarding this story.
As for tribal executive leaders, the evidence in the government’s case seems clear-cut.
“When in America is a decision in defiance of such overwhelming evidence acceptable?” Mr. Jose and Ms. Johnson wrote.
“Where in America is it okay for law enforcement officials, or anyone else, to take an unarmed man’s life?
‘Other Options’
In the meantime, the Tohono O'odham Nation’s executive office said it will explore “other opportunities to rectify this misguided decision, which may include requesting Congressional inquiries.
“We also stand by other legal and administrative efforts to obtain justice for wrongly taking Raymond’s life.”
Ms. Navarez said her uncle’s death is not the first negative encounter between tribal members and Border Patrol.
But it is the most deadly.
“We don’t feel comfortable contacting tribal police [who] will contact Border Patrol for backup,” she said. “We don’t feel safe.
“We feel like they’re trying to push it under the rug. It’s one-sided—the government against us.”
