Teen shot by DEA agents dies in hospital

SAN ANTONIO -- A teenage girl, shot and killed by federal drug agents, was a victim of excessive force from law officers who were investigating her father, relatives and friends say.

Ashley Villarreal, 14, died on Tuesday evening after family members requested that she be taken off life support at Wilford Hall Medical Center.

A friend challenged Drug Enforcement Administration officials' account of how agents on Sunday had shot the daughter of Joey Angel Villarreal, a three-time convicted drug offender who turned himself in and was charged with cocaine trafficking a day after the shooting.

Ashley Villarreal had been hospitalized in critical condition since being shot once in the back of the head.

One of the agents at a drug stakeout in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles were watching a house on the city's west side where they believed a suspect was hiding when they saw a man get into the passenger side of a car, San Antonio police Sgt. Gabe Trevino said.

"A girl got into the driver's side of the vehicle, and when they started leaving without the headlights on, and at a high rate of speed, the agents felt certain that this was their suspect and he was trying to escape," Trevino said after the shooting.

When agents boxed the car in and attempted to arrest the man, they said the girl who was driving the car continued toward them and slammed into their vehicle, then shifted into reverse and rammed the DEA vehicle behind her. Agents fired at least four times, and the girl was struck in the head.

Trevino said the man was not the drug suspect agents were seeking, but he was booked into jail on a charge of public intoxication.

Daniel Robles, a family friend and housemate who was with the teenager during the stakeout, said the unmarked vehicles that emerged moments after the girl pulled out of the driveway appeared to be pursuing her.

"It makes me really angry," Robles told the San Antonio Express-News earlier Tuesday. "This girl's dying and there are these reports that she threatened them."

Investigators from the DEA arrived Tuesday afternoon to begin reviewing the death. San Antonio police officers continued their investigation, questioning the shooting victim's grandmother.

Robles said the agents opened fire immediately after the crash and didn't identify themselves until afterward.

"The first shot was fired and Ashley didn't say a word," he said. "She didn't scream or anything and I knew she was hit with the first shot."

Robles said the girl had not tried to back up unless, somehow in the collision, her automatic transmission was knocked into reverse. He said there was no way for the car to have endangered the agents.

"How could they feel threatened when we were jammed in between (their vehicles) like a sandwich?" he said.

Law officers declined to respond to Robles' version or to discuss details of the case Tuesday, citing the pending investigation.

Robles said that after the gunfire, the agents pulled him out through the passenger side and handcuffed him. Then they reached in and lay Ashley on the grassy curb.

"They knew. I could see it. They had made a big mistake," Robles said.