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Mother Of Teen Shot To Death By Off-Duty Border Agent Speaks Out

PASADENA   (CBSLA.com) —    The mother of a teen fatally shot Friday in an officer-involved shooting is speaking out.

The woman's son was shot along with another teen, a cousin.  A third boy,  who was with the two, was not wounded. The cousin is expected to recover.

The three  juveniles were reportedly trying to rob the off-duty agent, he told authorities.

The man works for U.S. Custom and Border Patrol at San Francisco International Airport and lives in Arcadia. He says he acted in self-defense after the teens attacked him.

He was bruised but did not require medical treatment, officials said.

Reshawna Myricks, mother of the deceased, disputes the officer's account.

"I'm hurt," she told KCAL 9's Cristy Fajardo. "I'm hurt! I'm hurt, I'm hurt. I'm hurt. You all robbed me to the core.."

For the last 24 hours, the mother of 15-year-old Darius Smith of Pasadena has wept but not slept.

She says she's been kept awake by nagging questions over the shooting death of her son.

"They going to walk home, they're going to see their kids tonight. I got to go  back and tell my other three that one of them ain't coming back no more ," Myricks said.

The Sheriffs Department says the officer told hem at about 8 Friday night, he got off the Gold Line and and so did Smith and the other two teens.

He said at Colorado and First they attacked him from behind. He said Smith held a gun to him while another hit him in the head demanding money and valuables.

That's when he says he reached for his own weapon, killing Smith and wounding the 15-year-old cousin. The third teen he said ran away.

That teen was later arrested.

"Them  boys didn't do that," Myricks maintains ,"they aren't those type of boys to do that."

The Sheriffs Department says the officer was bruised on his face and investigators found what turned out to be a replica handgun at the scene.

Smith's mother says she doesn't believe the son who loved video games and dreamed of playing in the NFL. would rob anymore.

"First, they said there was no crime me committed," Myrics says, "Now there is a crime committed. Now it's  a gun, then they said  there was a fight. I don't know what to believe. All I know is my baby [os] gone and I'll never know his story."

But deputies are hoping video will tell the entire story. They believe cameras were rolling on the Gold Line and nearby businesses. Deputies said because of the holiday weekend detectives haven't been able to access the video.

Myrics says the family hasn't been able to speak to Smith's cousin or the third teen who was arrested.

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