On Sept. 28, 2012, Valeria “Munique” Tachiquin, a 32-year-old mother was fatally shot 10 times by a plain-clothes federal agent. While Border Patrol Deputy claims that Agent Justin Tackett was “Fearing for his life,” as “he discharged his weapon to get the vehicle to stop,” more than a dozen witness disagree with this version of the events.

On that day border patrol agents were serving a felony warrant, completely unrelated to Munique; the warrant they were serving was for other people who lived in the building. Munique was simply heading to her car when seven plain clothes agents approached her asking her questions, without cause.

According to American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Border patrol agents are expected to maintain a professional appearance when acting upon official duty and are required to identify themselves as Border Patrol agents. Agent Justin Tackett wore plain clothes, didn’t have anything showing he was an agent, and never identified himself as an agent. Tackett just went up to her and started asking her questions and then got in front of her vehicle according to witnesses.

Contrary to official Border Patrol reports that claim of, “her (Munique) running the agent down with her car – him jumping up on her hood – and she driving down Moss Street for ‘several hundred yards’ with him clinging to the hood,” Witnesses suggest a different series of events.

Witnesses claim she attempted to reverse away from them (the Border Patrol Agents) when Justin Tackett pulled his gun out and started shooting. “Tackett shot her while she was backing up, he wasn’t on her hood.” One witness, who choose to remain nameless because of intimidation by the Border Patrol agency, was less than 30 feet away. “He was standing on his two feet I could see Tackett’s face.”

Munique was shot multiple times. One witness added sadly that no one rushed to give her aid, “she was still alive, still moving.”

Why am I writing about this twelve years after the fact? Munique is my mom, and her death was a crime.

Agent Tackett should never have been hired. Before his employment with the Border Patrol, “he had been suspended by the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department four times for misconduct. He was about to fired, he quit instead. Eugene Iredale, the Tachiquin family’s lawyer said, “He was a person who could not have passed a reasonable background check, who should have never been hired as a law enforcement officer in the first place."

This seems to be a common practice for the Border Patrol. The Southern Borders Community Coalition has been tracking data of fatal encounters with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which includes the Border Patrol since 2010. They report that “since January 2010, 311 people have died as the result of encounters with CBP agents. Many more have been brutalized, in some cases causing life-altering injuries. These deaths are an undercount.”

My mom had a right not to answer any of agent Tackett’s questions. She was not the criminal agents were warranted to look for, and the agents never identified themselves visually or verbally. If agents like Justin Tackett aren’t held accountable for their actions when wrong, the number of innocent lives lost will continue to increase.