SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Video footage obtained by ABC News this week shows the events leading up to a teenager's death at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in 2013.
The video shows U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers approached by a 16-year-old Cruz Velazquez, with two bottles containing an unknown liquid. The officers are accused of encouraging the teen to drink the liquid to prove it was safe after he reportedly claimed it was apple juice.
Later testing would show it was in fact concentrated liquid methamphetamine. Velazquez died within two hours of ingesting the liquid.
Velazquez's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers and CBP. The U.S. government agreed to pay the family $1 million in March.
"What you see, I think, is a basic lack of compassion and decency toward a 16-year-old boy," Gene Iredale, a San Diego-based attorney who represented the Velazquez family, told ABC News. "Almost a delight that you would see in children who just pull the wings off flies slowly, a smile when he's being asked to drink something and being put in this position."
The video first aired Friday on Good Morning America and will be part of ABC News special investigation reports on World News Tonight with David Muir, 20/20 and Nightline later the same day.
