The family of an Indigenous American man who was killed during an alleged call to report undocumented migrants to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol have put the agency on notice and announced plans to file a wrongful death claim.
On Friday, the family of Raymond Mattia and their legal team held a press conference in Tucson.
“[The family] deserve[s] justice, justice for Ray’s murder, justice for the loss of a beloved family member, justice for the many Native Americans who are victims of these violences,” attorney Ryan Stitt said.
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“The Department of Justice will not even honor the family’s rights as victims of crime to answer basic questions about what led to Ray’s death,” Stitt said.
Instead, he claimed the agency, who was invited but did not attend the presser, is more concerned about the “protection of the agents” responsible for Mattia’s death.
“Unlike the Department of Justice, we will not remain silent. We joined the Tohono O’odham Nation in condemning the outrageous decision to not hold the officers to account that led to Ray’s death,” Stitt added. “We’ve delivered our formal notice—in essence—our intent to sue them, and it is up to them now to decide how to respond. We hope that they accept responsibility and that they work with the family to seek just results. If they will not, we will continue forward in court and hold them accountable for their actions.”
Mattia’s family is demanding a $15 million settlement from Customs and Border Patrol, a full public account of what happened on the night Mattia was killed, and a review of Border Patrol’s relationship with local police.
“If [Customs and Border Patrol] is unwilling to reach a just settlement with the Mattia family, they plan to file a civil rights lawsuit in district court and pursue their claims to the fullest extent of the law,” the family stated in a tort claim released Friday.
In May, Mattia, 58, was killed after allegedly placing a call to Border Control about undocumented migrants trespassing on his property—just outside of Ajo, Arizona—on the Tohono O’odham Reservation.
According to Border Patrol agent body camera footage, agents and an officer from the Tohono O’odham police were responding to reports of gunshots. Mattia’s family claimed there was some miscommunication and information gaps that led the agents to their family member’s home. Nonetheless, footage shows agents approaching Mattia outside the home and ordering him to put his hands up. He threw a machete in their direction and after he emptied out his pockets as instructed and threw away his cell phone, police opened fire on him. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital in Tucson.
The Arizona district of the U.S. Attorney’s Office told the family in September that it decided not to press charges against Border Patrol because “the agents’ use of force…[did] not rise to the level of a federal criminal civil rights violation or a criminal violation assimilated under Arizona law.”
“My family wants justice for my Uncle Ray. We want to keep talking about it. We want everybody to know about it,” Mattia’s niece, Lisa Mattia, previously told The Daily Beast. “We want to tell everybody that the Border Patrol was wrong in this situation. …We want the Tohono O’odham police to know that they were wrong. …We want policies to change on this reservation.”
In the family’s tort claim released Friday, attorneys say the body camera footage never showed the agents overhearing gunshots that they were allegedly responding to and never encountered any residents on the reservation who were fearful. The claim also states that agents met Mattia at his home and demanded for him to leave the house and go outside. However, border patrol camera footage only showed agents encountering Mattia while he was outside his home.
During Friday’s press conference, Stitt called the body camera footage released by the Border Patrol a “series of edited clips.”
“[The Border Patrol] only released a selected portion of [body camera footage]. They’ve also edited audio content in different places,” Stitt alleged. “It’s clear to us that they’ve done that in an effort to present a narrative that’s most favorable to them.”
Co-attorney Tim Scott said the U.S. Attorney’s Office “stonewalled” the Mattia family from receiving any information and answers to their questions.
According to the tort claim, Border Patrol agents still responded in an aggressive manner even though Mattia allegedly was compliant and “non-threatening.”
“CBP’s unjustified killing of Mr. Mattia violated Arizona assault, battery and wrongful death laws, and the agents’ actions further violated the United States Constitution by using excessive force, improperly seizing him by ordering him out of his home and pointing guns at him without cause.”
The tort claim adds that agents fired over three dozen shots and hit Mattia nine times. Mattia’s autopsy report is also attached to the claim, showing that his cause of death was homicide by gunshot wounds.
“We’re here because there was a grievous injustice,” Scott said during Friday’s press conference. “We were interested in the facts of what happened, not their propaganda statement. And we have yet to receive the fact that the U.S. Attorney’s office isn’t showing up here. Today is telling but it’s not surprising.”
On Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona failed to address the Mattia family’s press conference in a request for comment and, instead, referenced the agency’s meeting with the family in September (in which it also declined to comment).
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment Friday.
