Authorities Tuesday publicly identified a 61-year-old man who collapsed and died last month during a scuffle with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at San Ysidro Port of Entry.
The confrontation began around 9:15 p.m. March 29, when Julio Marcos Gonzalez, a U.S. citizen who lived in Mexico, tried to enter the United States by walking through exit doors in a pedestrian-processing area at the border station, according to the San Diego Police Department.
When security personnel approached Gonzalez and directed him toward the entrance to the facility, he was uncooperative and got into a struggle with them, SDPD Lt. Andra Brown said.
After being detained and taken to a holding cell, Gonzalez began having difficulty breathing and lost consciousness, Brown said. CBP personnel and paramedics tried in vain to revive him before pronouncing him dead at the scene.
A cause-of-death ruling for Gonzalez remains on hold pending completion of postmortem examinations.
As is standard in such cases, the SDPD Homicide Unit is investigating the circumstances of the fatality, and its ultimate conclusions will be analyzed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.