New Video Appears to Show Vigilante Border Murder

This morning, the Intelligence Report obtained a video that purports to show a vigilante murdering a Mexican immigrant just inside the U.S.-Mexico border.

It’s unclear at this point whether the video is authentic. It is strikingly similar to another video, posted on this blog late last week, that appears to show a nativist yelling threats and firing a shotgun at migrants crossing the U.S. border, but apparently hitting no one.

[flashvideo width="320" height="240" filename="videos/Border_shooting2.flv" image="wp-content/uploads/static/videos/Border_shooting2.jpg" /]

The video, filmed with night-vision equipment and low in quality, is not always easy to understand. Here is a detailed description:

The footage starts by showing a single figure wearing a backpack sneaking along a rugged desert trail. A male voice, off-camera, says: “I got him. He’s low crawling. Guy with a backpack. I betcha it’s probably full of dope.”

As the figure crests a hill, the man shouts out loud: “Hey, puto [“f-----”]!” The backpack-wearer ducks behind the far side of a rocky outcropping, then pops up and peers over it a few times. “I got him,” the off-camera voice says. “He’s prairie doggin’ now. He heard me.”

A walkie-talkie crackles and a second male voice that sounds like it’s coming from an off-camera walkie-talkie says: “All right, where you at? What’s your 20?”

“He’s up there on the, uh, smuggler’s trail,” the first voice responds.

The second male voice says, “I don’t have a visual.”

At this point in the video, the backpack-wearing figure begins to slowly emerge from behind the rock outcropping. “You know what? I’m going to take a f------ shot,” the first voice says. There are two flashes of light and the sound of two semi-automatic rifle shots in quick succession. The figure wearing the backpack appears to fly backward and drop from view.

“Oh f---, I got him dude!’ the first voice says. “I f-----’ got him!” There is a pause, then the first voice says, “Dude, what are we gonna do?” The voice on the walkie-talkie replies, “Get the shovel, get some lime, and hey, grab me a 12-pack, too, while you’re up there.”

“Roger that,” the first voice answers between chortles. “We f-----’ nailed him, dude! We f-----’ nailed him!” That’s where the video ends.

The Intelligence Report has contacted law enforcement authorities to provide them with a copy of the video.

The voice of the man who is the apparent shooter in this video is remarkably similar to that of the apparent shooter in the earlier video, which showed a man shouting “Hey, putos” and firing a shotgun. The earlier video (visible in the posting immediately below) was posted here on Aug. 10 after being E-mailed to a number of nativist leaders by Mountain Minuteman founder Robert Crooks, also known as “Lil Dog,” on July 26. Crooks denied making that video or being the shooter in it. He did not confirm or deny E-mailing the video to other anti-immigration activists.

Crooks has recently been stationed at a remote outpost on the border near Jacumba, Calif., where he was joined in late July by Leland Sprout, the founder of Americans4America, a Las Vegas, Nev.-based chapter of the Minuteman Project.

On Aug. 11, the day after Hatewatch posted the first night-vision video, San Diego Minutemen founder Jeff Schwilk posted the following message to a Minuteman discussion group online:

“If the media goes to Patriot Point to confront Lil Dog (or Leland) on this, I’m afraid it could be 10 times worse than it already is. I asked Lil Dog for a statement of facts about this yesterday, but he has not given me one yet. He’s telling people there is nothing wrong with the video. He doesn’t feel he owes anyone an explanation of why he thinks its ok to post death threats on the internet…

“I have a press release all ready to go if this hits the American media. We will isolate this incident and these people from the rest of us to minimize damage to the Minuteman movement. Lil Dog, my advice is go take a vacation and get away from the border for a while or longer. And make sure Leland stays away from the border too. Disappear for a while.”