EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — An El Paso man claimed his 7-year-old rottweiler was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent without justification, as agents searched his home for undocumented migrants. The man is seeking accountability for the agent’s actions.
KTSM spoke with the man’s attorney, Marisa Ong, senior counsel with Schreiber Injury Attorneys, as he did not want to be identified.
Ong said the incident occurred at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 9, at her client’s home located somewhere in the Upper Valley. She shared a statement from her client.
“On the morning of September 9, Border Patrol agents came to my home in El Paso, claiming they were investigating ‘alien smuggling.’ I live alone with my dog, Chop, a 7-year-old rottweiler I’ve had since he was a puppy. I was fully cooperating with the agents and was not doing anything wrong.
“Before allowing them inside, I secured Chop in the bathroom to ensure everyone’s safety. Despite that, one agent entered the house, opened the bathroom door, and shot Chop. I rushed back inside to find him bleeding on the floor, and he died in my arms after nearly an hour of suffering. I am heartbroken over the loss of my dog, and I want the public to know that I took every precaution to cooperate with Border Patrol and to keep Chop safe.”
Ong alleged that the agent shot the dog as her client was retrieving his identification card at the request of agents, from his vehicle located outside. She said her client had informed all of the agents that he would lock the dog inside the bathroom and asked that they inform him if they needed to search the bathroom so he could relocate him elsewhere for everyone’s safety.
Image depicts Chop wounded and dead from a shot
“What it appears the agent did is he went into the house by himself. He went straight for the bathroom. Opened the door. Let chop out and then shot him while he was 18ft away from the bathroom,” Ong said.
Ong said she believes the agent will claim he was acting in self-defense, but she alleged that evidence suggests the agent had no justification for shooting the dog.
“If Chop had been threatening the agent as he opened the door to let him out of the bathroom, presumably he would have shot Chop right there in the bathroom,” Ong said. “The bathroom door is very narrow, and it opens in. So, when the agent opened the door, Chop would have been right there. Chop was approximately 120 pounds; he’s a fairly large dog, so the agent would have seen Chop immediately, in addition to the fact that my client had told him exactly where Chop was. If Chop had been presenting any type of threat to the agent, he easily could have shut the door,” Ong said.
Bathroom door
Measurement showing the bullet hole located 18ft away from bathroom door
Measurement showing the bullet hole located 18ft away from bathroom door
Ong said Border Patrol agents did not offer any help to her client as he held the dying dog in his arms. She said her client’s father arrived moments later and that he pressed the agents for answers on why they were searching the property.
Ong said the father was told by agents that aside from the tip they received, they had been conducting surveillance of the house, which they believe is a lie.
“In response to that, my client’s father said, ‘Well, if you’ve been doing surveillance, you would know that my son and I have been renovating this house.’ My client and his father had been renovating that house every weekend since May,” Ong said.
Ong said her client and his father had been the only people renovating the home, and that they are both U.S. citizens.
Ong said that there is an ongoing internal investigation into the agent’s actions by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Professional Responsibility.
“It appeared only the agent who went inside knew exactly what happened. One of the things that we’re trying to do is figure out if there’s any lapel cam (body cam) video of what occurred. But from the timing of it, it looks like the agent just went into the house by himself, which is against protocol,” Ong said.
“They told my client they had a tip. We don’t know who made the tip? We don’t know if that’s true. I think that part of what law enforcement should be aware of is that when you’re dealing with the public, there is a large percentage of the public that does want to be cooperative. But when situations like this happen, it makes it very difficult for the public to trust that law enforcement is there for a valid reason,” Ong added.
CBP was reached out to for comment on this story. As of this writing they have not responded.
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