Supreme Court will take 2nd look at cross-border shooting case

May 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether the parents of a Mexican teenager who was shot dead by a border agent from across the border can sue the officer for damages.

Sergio Adrian Hernandez's family wants to sue the agent in federal court, saying the teen's constitutional rights were violated. It calls into question whether constitutional protections extend beyond U.S. borders, and whether officers can be held legally liable for firing shots from inside the United States.

The 15-year-old boy was shot in Juarez, Mexico, in 2010. His family said he and friends would often run up to the U.S. border and touch it, before returning. Border agent Jesus Mesa, who said the boys had also thrown rocks, was not prosecuted during the Obama administration and wasn't extradited to Mexico. Hernandez's family said cellphone video shows the boy was shot while hiding beneath a railroad trestle.

"This case simply involves a federal official engaged in his law enforcement duties acting on United States soil who shot and killed an unarmed 15-year-old boy standing a few feet away," the family's appeal argued.

The court said Tuesday it will hear arguments in October.

The case has been to the Supreme Court before, though only briefly before justices remanded it to a lower court. The high court seeks to clarify conflicting rulings from two lower courts.