Around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 10, 2012, John Zuñiga, a police officer in Nogales, Arizona, received a call reporting "suspicious activity" on International Street, a road running directly along the border.

Getting to the scene, Zuñiga heard from another police officer from Nogales, Quinardo Garci, that two men carrying "bundles taped to their backs" had climbed the fence into the United States.

[2][1] In the days following the incident, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency stated that The person hit was José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, a 16-year old resident of Nogales, Mexico.

He was unarmed, standing on the Mexican side of the border on a sidewalk on Calle Internacional street, in front of a doctor's office, below a sign reading "Medical Emergencies" in Spanish.

[7] After the testimony of the director of the medical examiner in Miami-Dade County, Florida, Emma Lew, who stated that Swartz's first shot "likely hit the boy in the middle of his back as he was running," the prosecution rested its case in the trial on April 5, 2018.

[7] After the jury's decision was reported, protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse in downtown Tucson late Monday afternoon, on 23 April,[9] and blocked off the intersection in front of it.

[10] Following the first trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney May Sue Feldmeier announced that prosecutors would seek a retrial on the two lesser charges (voluntary and involuntary manslaughter) against Swartz, who waived his right to appear in court.