Newly released body camera footage captured the horrifying moment a migrant who was trapped on the border wall called for help before falling to her death.
Petronila Elizabeth Poma Pérez, a 24-year-old Guatemalan citizen, could not be seen in the images. Published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, But she could be heard repeatedly calling for help.
A Border Patrol agent tried to reassure him that help was on the way, but after more than 20 minutes Poma Perez slipped and fell to his death from the top of the 30-foot wall in the border town of Otay Mesa, California, on March 21.
She is said to have arrived with a group of other migrants that night and brazenly scaled the wall in front of officers who warned her to stay there.
Border Patrol now says the San Diego Fire Department did not get to the correct side of the border wall in time to help Poma Perez and provide him with a ladder to climb down.
Petronila Elizabeth Poma Pérez, a 24-year-old Guatemalan citizen, tragically fell to her death from the top of the border wall in March.
Body camera footage shows an unidentified officer arriving at the scene between the primary and secondary fences separating the United States and Mexico in California around 10:30 p.m.
He could be heard advising the woman not to jump the fence or go down the north side, telling her in Spanish: “Don’t go down, don’t go down.”
But Poma Perez apparently doesn’t listen and begins to climb the fence anyway, prompting the officer to advise him: “Don’t do that, don’t do that.”
“Stay there, don’t come down, please, please,” he is heard telling the woman as he calls for help.
He then promises the woman that the San Diego Fire Department is on the way to help her and tells her to wait until the firefighters arrive on the scene.
At one point, another migrant approaches the fence and asks the agent if he can use a nearby ladder to rescue the woman, to which the officer responds that they must wait for the firefighters before they can take any action.
Body camera footage shows a Border Patrol officer telling him not to climb the wall
The officer then tells him to wait and tells him that the fire department is on the way.
Firefighters arrived at the scene about 14 minutes later, but were on the wrong side of the wall to help the woman.
To make matters worse, the fire truck was unable to make the sharp turn through the nearest gate and had to take a longer route.
While they were doing this, Poma Pérez could be heard crying because he was having trouble holding on.
At 10:54 p.m., Poma Pérez screamed that he was going to fall and, moments later, a loud bang was heard as his body hit the raised concrete base.
A Border Patrol agent on scene finds her lying on the ground, unresponsive, with severe head trauma and profuse bleeding.
“I think it’s over, bro,” the officer was heard telling another officer before calling EMS.
As he waited for firefighters to get to the right side of the border wall, he screamed that it was about to fall.
The Border Patrol officer called for EMS assistance after finding her lying on the ground, unresponsive, with massive head trauma and profuse bleeding.
Meanwhile, firefighters finally reached the correct side of the wall about 10 minutes after Poma Perez fell.
In body camera footage, an officer can be heard saying: “They didn’t get there in time, he couldn’t hold on.”
Poma Perez was pronounced dead at the scene.
The San Diego Fire Department now says Customs and Border Protection officers directed the engine to the wrong side of the wall and had to perform “lengthy maneuvers” to reach the correct location.
“While the environment at the border is very challenging, there are thousands of examples over the years where our teams, in conjunction with CBP agents, have saved lives,” the fire department said. he told NBC San Diego.
‘Our staff feels terrible when a fatality occurs because our intention is always to rescue and provide aid, and to take to the hospital those who need further medical attention.’
The San Diego Fire Department said Customs and Border Protection agents called them to the wrong side of the wall.
But Poma Perez’s death has raised concerns about the Border Patrol’s protocols when a migrant’s life is in danger, with some human rights groups calling it part of a broader policy failure in Washington.
“Had Ms. Poma Perez been able to walk to a port of entry to seek safety, as required by U.S. law, rather than being forced to wait in danger in Mexico, she might not have attempted to scale that wall,” said Amy Fischer, refugee and migrant rights director at Amnesty International USA. he told Newsweek.
“People will risk their lives to save their lives, and this heartbreaking tragedy is one of too many deaths occurring at the border due to cruel U.S. border policies.”
Pedro Rios, who advocates for migrants as director of the American Friends Service Committee, also told NBC San Diego that the “tragic situation… could have been avoided.”
“When we argued that 30-foot border walls would only bring more suffering and more death, this is exactly what we meant,” he said.
Rios added that “we should not normalize someone falling and dying and not question why that is wrong.”
Customs and Border Protection said its Office of Professional Responsibility is reviewing the incident.
