On Friday, authorities made public the identity of a man from Los Angeles who was shot by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials after he allegedly attempted to rush past a vehicle-inspection area at Otay Mesa Port of Entry, almost running over the police. The man was found to have sustained minor injuries.
According to the San Diego Police Department, which looks into shootings involving CBP employees under a regional agreement intended to avoid conflicts of interest, Humberto Chavarria-Cervantes, 59, was slashed by flying glass when bullets broke the windshield of the car he was driving through the border inspection and processing station on Monday.
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According to SDPD Lt. Arturo Swadener, Chavarria-Cervantes drove into the border port from Mexico at around 9 p.m. that day, setting off the sequence of events that resulted in the police shooting.
Police said Chavarria-Cervantes, a U.S. citizen, sped off toward the north end of the facility when officials told him to drive into a secondary inspection area. When he discovered that the exit was blocked by other passengers’ cars, he allegedly turned around and drove quickly back south, straight into a group of Customs officers.
Chavarria-Cervantes’ car skidded to a stop when CBP Officers Richard Labak, Hugo Osuna, and Jerald Talob fired in response. Chavarria-Cervantes then gave himself up, and paramedics transported him to a hospital to receive treatment for minor cuts on his face.
No other injuries were reported as a result of the interaction.
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According to officials, Labak has worked for the federal agency for 22 years, Osuna for two, and Talob for six.
In relation to Monday’s incident, Chavarria-Cervantes was charged this week by federal prosecutors with assault, resisting, or obstructing a federal officer.
A CBP officer noticed a knife on the floorboard of Chavarria-Cervantes’ car’s front passenger side, according to a statement written by a Homeland Security Investigations special agent and submitted to a federal court. Additionally, “unusually high-density readings” were detected from the dashboard of a car by a gadget that detects possible contraband in automobiles.
According to the court statement, Chavarria-Cervantes told investigators after his arrest that he did not mean to hit any of the responding officers when he was attempting to leave the inspection area.
