Lawyers representing a Mexican woman shot in the head by a Border Patrol agent in Nogales earlier this year have filed a claim with the U.S. government.
Marisol García Alcántara, 37, was shot on a side road one evening last June. Back then, Customs and Border Protection said the incident was being handled by its Office of Professional Responsibility and the FBI but offered no further details.
According to the claim filed this month, Alcántara was shot in the head while unarmed and riding in the backseat of a white SUV. It says she sustained lifelong injuries from bullet fragments lodged in her brain.
In an interview from her home in Mexico City this month, she told the Associated Press she still suffers from memory loss, dizziness and other issues. She said that she was among a group of people who'd arrived in the U.S. shortly before the incident and that she came to see her mother and find work. After receiving emergency surgery in Phoenix, she said she was detained for weeks before being sent back to Mexico.
The claim is the first step in what will become a Federal Torts Claim with the federal court in Tucson.
