Ramos/Compean: prison beating; supervisors knew of incident; written report not allowed

The saga of the two Border Patrol agents who strongly appear to have been railroaded by the Bush administration continues with the news that BP Agent Ramos has been beaten in prison by five Hispanics after they recognized him from either an episode of America's Most Wanted or the Lou Dobbs show.

And:

A Department of Homeland Security internal memo discloses seven Border Patrol agents and two supervisors were at the scene of the shooting for which officers Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are imprisoned.

That paragraph makes me cringe, because the memo says this:

Investigation disclosed that the following BP agents were at the location of the shooting incident, assisted in destroying evidence of the shooting, and/or knew/heard about the shooting: Oscar Juarez; Arturo Vasquez; Jose Mendoza; David Jacquez; Lance Medrano; Lorenzo Yrigoyen; Rene Mendez; Robert Arnold; and Jonathan Richards.

The "or" could imply that none, one, or both of the two supervisors (Arnold and Richards) were on the scene. However, Andy Ramirez of the Friends of the Border Patrol says all of them were on the scene:

"All the listed agents were in the field, and the memo says they knew about the shooting, including the two supervisors... The Border Patrol manual specifies that only a verbal report needs to be made of shooting incidents like this. All the agents in the field that day were discussing the shooting incident, including the supervisors. What more of a verbal report needed to be made? Ramos and Compean weren't trying to hide anything, not with the field supervisors right there."

That appears to contradict claims made by the Bush-linked U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton.

And, from this:

U.S. Border Patrol firearms policy specifically states that agents are prohibited from filing a report if a shooting incident takes place and that only an oral report to supervisors is required.

Immigration2007a · Tue, 02/06/2007 - 11:07 · · Importance: 1