Charges pending in shooting at border

By Anna Cearley, Onell R. Soto and Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
May 20, 2006

Federal authorities said yesterday they plan to file charges against two people arrested Thursday following the shooting death of a suspected immigrant smuggler near the San Ysidro border crossing.

The country's busiest land border crossing was closed for nearly nine hours, stranding motorists in miles of gridlock, while authorities investigated the shooting.

The two who have been arrested were passengers in a black Dodge Durango that authorities tried to stop on Interstate 5 just north of the border. Officials said the SUV accelerated toward officers, who opened fire and killed the driver.

One of the people arrested, Jose Adolfo Gonzalez Fabian, 26, a Mexican citizen, is expected to appear in court Monday on immigrant smuggling charges, authorities said.

Gonzalez has no criminal convictions in the United States, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack.

“He was arrested several times as a suspected human smuggler,” she said. But each time, authorities elected to deport him rather than to prosecute him, she said.