By Michael J. Sniffen
Associated Press Writer
Monday, June 5, 2000; 7:24 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON –– The armed Border Patrol agent photographed confronting a frightened Elian Gonzalez during the April raid in Miami says "I never purposely pointed my weapon" at the 6-year-old Cuban boy or rescuer Donato Dalrymple who was holding him.

The agent said Dalrymple voluntarily released Elian "without any sort of a struggle" as the agent put his hand "firmly against Mr. Dalrymple's chest" to control his movements, according to Justice Department documents released Monday.

An Associated Press photograph of the goggled, fatigue-clad agent holding an MP-5 submachine gun prompted many who sympathized with the boy's Miami relatives to criticize the raid as an excessive show of force. The relatives said they were terrorized by the raid.

After the relatives defied a government order to turn Elian over to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, the raiders snatched the boy April 22 from the Miami home at 5:15 a.m. when Cuban exile protesters outside had dwindled to a few dozen.

The Justice Department released written after-action debriefing reports by the six tactical unit officers who entered the house in Miami's Little Havana section. The government continued to withhold their names.

Taking all six reports together, the agents said they used no profanity during the raid, no team member threatened to shoot anyone, team members made no threats to use force against anyone in the home, no one inside the home was pushed to the floor or held to the floor during the operation and Elian's cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, was not touched in any way.

In addition, no pepper spray or other chemical irritants were used inside the house, three locked doors were broken open only after occupants were given an opportunity to open them, and the fire selector of the MP-5 in the AP photograph was in the safe position, which the government said made it "virtually impossible to fire the weapon inadvertently."

The agent who confronted Elian in the photograph was the team leader. A former Special Forces tactical instructor, he was the third team member to enter the house.

After another agent forced open the door to the bedroom where Elian was, the team leader said, "I identified myself and ordered people in the room not to move."

"I was moving with my weapon held in the high search position. I had both hands on my weapon with the weapon grounded to my right shoulder," the agent said. "As I moved into the room, I was using the 'third eye' search technique.

"This technique ensures that the muzzle of the weapon is pointed in the same general direction that the weapon handler is looking. This search method enhances officer safety by providing for quick reaction to a threat and is standard operating procedure for tactical units."

Alan Diaz, the freelance photographer who was on assignment for the AP and took the dramatic pictures that day, remembers more about the sounds than the sights of the moment.

"All I hear is that kid's crying," Diaz said two weeks after the incident. "The most awful cry you could ever hear in your life."

Diaz also said he vividly remembers the mournful sounds coming from the crowd outside the family's home, including dozens who had spent the night talking, praying and sipping coffee. A native of the Bronx, N.Y., of Cuban descent, Diaz had gained the trust of the boy's great-uncle during the preceding five months.

The agent said he saw the AP photographer against the far wall and out of the corner of his eye "saw someone peek out of the closet and then disappear back into the closet."

"I ... pulled the door open until I could see inside the closet," the agent said. He saw a man who turned out to be Dalrymple, who had helped fish Elian out of the Atlantic Ocean last Thanksgiving, holding a boy he believed to be Elian. "Dalrymple shouted, 'Don't take Elian'."

"When I determined that Mr. Dalrymple was not a threat, I immediately went into a defensive controlling posture," the agent said. "I moved my left hand from the foregrip of my weapon and placed it firmly against Mr. Dalrymple's left chest area..." and shouted to other team members.

"As I was doing this, I diverted the barrel of my weapon downward and away from Mr. Dalrymple, creating distance between him and my weapon. I was using my left hand to control Mr. Dalrymple's movements and to defend myself against a possible physical attack."

The agent said the widely published photograph "does not present a clear rendition of the entire event."

"While my weapon was being pointed in the general direction I was searching, I never purposely pointed my weapon at Elian Gonzalez or Mr. Dalrymple," he said. "...I was looking into the closet to determine whether or not a threat existed. Immediately upon determining that no threat existed in the closet, I transitioned to a defensive posture."

Dalrymple handed Elian to another agent, designated team member 4, while the team leader was pressing on his chest. Team member 4 said, "There was no struggle and I did not have to pull Elian away from Mr. Dalrymple. Mr. Dalrymple released Elian at the same time I put my hands on Elian."

Team member 4 pivoted and handed Elian to a female agent. The entire team then hurried out of the house.

On another issue, Diaz said he still doesn't know whether federal agents tore the bedroom door off its hinges. He said he saw the door kicked open, and his photos show a crack in the door. But they don't show the door trampled to the floor, as does a photo taken later in the day when the family showed the damage.

The team leader and team member 4 both remembered that after a second kick by team member 4 the door swung open inward and to the left. Team member 4 did not remember stepping over any debris. The team leader recalled seeing the door open intact but cracked downward from the doorknob toward the left.