[3] The shooting inspired the 2005 movie The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada by Tommy Lee Jones, and the 2007 documentary The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez.
[4] U.S. Marines Ronald Wieler Jr., Ray Torres Jr., James Matthew Blood, and their fire-team leader, San Francisco native Clemente Bañuelos (all between the ages of 19 and 22), on drug patrol and heavily camouflaged in ghillie suits, came upon Hernández herding goats.
The camouflaged Marines observed the 18-year-old high school student from concealment at a distance of approximately 200 yards while maintaining radio contact with their unit.
[1] Continuing to call for Border Patrol assistance, the Marines proceeded to track Hernández for 20 minutes, until Bañuelos shot and killed him, with the bullet entering the armpit on his right side.
[14] As then-president Donald Trump in 2018 ordered active-duty troops to the U.S.–Mexico border in Operation Faithful Patriot, the military killing of the teenager resurfaced in the public debate as a cautionary tale.