Group seeks $100M for woman killed by US border agent

HOUSTON (AP) — Advocates demanded $100 million in damages Thursday on behalf of the family of a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent last year.

The legal claim on behalf of Claudia Patricia Gómez González was filed one year after she died. It comes as the U.S. government grapples with surging numbers of Central Americans crossing its southern border and the deaths of six children in the last year after being apprehended by border agents.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed the claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act as a precursor to filing a lawsuit.

Gómez González crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas along with several migrants who were confronted by a Border Patrol agent, who opened fire and killed her.

The claim says Gómez González "posed no threat to anyone, as would have been obvious from the slightest glance." The claim says she was unarmed and not fleeing as others in the group of migrants were.

It demands $50 million each for personal injury and what it says was Gómez González's wrongful death.

"Her life was as valuable as anyone else's, and her family deserves justice for their loss," said Andre Segura, the group's legal director. "Our government has a responsibility to treat everyone lawfully, humanely, and with respect regardless of how they came into this country."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol's parent agency, declined to comment Thursday. CBP's initial statement on May 23, 2018, about Gómez González's death said that the agent used his gun after being attacked by "multiple subjects using blunt objects." The agency called Gómez González an assailant.

The agency revised its statement a day later to say Gómez González was "one member of the group" that...