What Really Happened in Border Shooting?

Former U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Ham points toward the location at Fabens, Texas, on Monday, Feb. 5, 2007, where former Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean shot drug smuggler Osvaldo Davila last year. The agents began serving prison sentences in January after their convictions in the incident. (AP Photo/Mark Lambie) (Mark Lambie - AP)

Compean pointed his shotgun at Aldrete. The driver raised his hands; they were empty, Compean, Juarez and Aldrete would all agree in statements to investigators and in court testimony.

At least two men _ Aldrete and Compean _ reported hearing one of the other agents say, "Hit him."

"No me pegues," Aldrete beseeched. "Don't hit me."

Compean swung the butt of his weapon at Aldrete, Juarez testified, but Compean lost his balance and fell into the ditch, dropping his shotgun. (Compean insisted he wasn't trying to hit the driver, only push him back.)

Aldrete took off out of the ditch, over the levee and across the vega, headed for Mexico.

The stories diverge from there.

Juarez testified that he was walking to the van to inspect its contents when he heard shooting, turned and saw Compean firing his Beretta handgun. He said he saw Compean reload, fire a few more shots and then dash into the vega.

Contradicting Juarez's account, Compean insisted he recovered from his fall, chased after Aldrete and tackled him. Aldrete, he said, threw dirt in his face and took off running again. Compean said he started shooting because he thought he saw something in the suspect's hand.

"He was pointing something at me ... it looked like a gun to me," he testified. "It was something black, shiny, in his hand."

Ramos testified that he heard gunfire, ran into the vega and saw Compean on the ground.

"I thought he had been shot, that he had been injured," he told jurors. Ramos testified that he never stopped or asked Compean if he'd been hit, however, and instead ran past his fellow agent and fired one final shot at Aldrete because, "I believed I saw a gun."

Testimony revealed that Compean fired about 14 times, and Ramos once. Compean and Ramos holstered their weapons and walked back toward the drainage ditch. Some 743 pounds of marijuana were discovered inside the van.