Confirmed: Teen Shot after Border Patrol Run-In
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION, AZ - DECEMBER 09: U.S. Border Patrol agents are swept by dust from a helicopter while tracking drug smugglers through the Sonoran Desert on December 9, 2010 in the Tohono O'odham Reservation, Arizona, near the U.S.-Mexico border. The remote area is a favorite spot for smugglers and illegal immigrants to cross into the United States. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) (2010 Getty Images)
The initial confusion over the death of a teenager on the Mexican-U.S. border is over.
Mexico's ambassador to the United States says it appears the teenager who threw rocks at Border Patrol agents in the Arizona city of Nogales died from a gunshot wound.
Controversy erupted after 17-year-old Ramses Barron Torres died at the Mexican border during a confrontation with Border Patrol agents. U.S. authorities initially said the teen died Wednesday after falling from a border fence and hitting his head on a rock.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}State police in Sonora, across the border from Arizona, said that companions of Barron Torres claimed that he was shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent after the youths had illegally crossed the border.
Speaking at a conference Thursday in Mexico City, Mexican ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan says it now appears "to be clear that the death was the result of a gunshot wound."
FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson told local newspaper Nogales International that Border Patrol agents were attempting to arrest suspected drug smugglers near the border fence when bystanders began flinging rocks at them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The FBI is investigating the incident with Mexican police. Border Patrol officials have not commented on the incident. But the U.S. Border Patrol agent involved in the shooting has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard practice.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.