By Luisa Yanez Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 11:53 p.m. June 13, 2000
MIAMI -- Two Washington-based immigration investigators on Tuesday met with an NBC cameraman who last week disputed federal agents' accounts of what occurred during the raid to retrieve Elián González.
Tony Zumbado, 45, of Miami, one of two journalists who made it into the Little Havana home steps ahead of the raiding agents, was questioned for nearly three hours in a downtown Miami office.
Zumbado did not talk directly to the agents, but was present while agents interviewed his attorney, who relayed Zumbado's version of the events on April 22 to two U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service internal affairs officers.
"My client just wanted to tell his side of the story, and he did," said Zumbado's attorney, John Ross. "The agents were very receptive as to what he set forth as the events on the night of the raid."
Zumbado's story and that of the agents' reports differ greatly. The agents said they uttered no foul language, manhandled no one or threatened to shoot if the boy was not handed over.
Ross would not give specific details on what he told investigators.
Zumbado, who NBC had assigned to camp outside the house around the clock, said agents struck him in the back, knocked him to the ground and held him at gunpoint by the front door, preventing him from doing his job.
Maria Cardona, a spokeswoman for INS, said NBC has filed an official complaint with the federal agency and an internal audit of the case has been launched. The questioning of Zumbado is part of that inquiry into whether there was any wrongdoing by the agents who took the boy.
Luisa Yanez can be reached at lyanez@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7920.
Copyright 1999, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive, Inc.
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