Border Crossing Shut After Shooting

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Associated Press
Friday, May 19, 2006

SAN DIEGO, May 18 -- A busy U.S.-Mexico border crossing was shut down Thursday after U.S. authorities shot and killed the driver of a car headed for Mexico, officials said.

The shooting occurred on southbound Interstate 5 around 3:30 p.m., about 50 feet north of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world's busiest border crossing, which links Tijuana, Mexico, with San Diego.

The driver, who not immediately identified, was pronounced dead at the scene with multiple gunshot wounds, said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

Footage from television news helicopters showed a black sport-utility vehicle in the middle of the road with a shattered driver's side window.

There were no immediate reports of any other injuries.

Details about what might have prompted the shooting were not immediately available.

The California Highway Patrol sealed off southbound access to the border, and rush-hour traffic backed up for more than a mile.



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