My point about the shooting in this thread was that if they had reported the shooting, then finding the man with the agent’s bullet in him would have been strong physical evidence linking the man to the crime scene.
But since they didn’t report it, trying to use it at trial would be fruitless. Ramos would be on the witness stand testifying that they shot the guy, and the defense would tear him apart about the failure to report the shooting, and noting that Ramos could have shot the guy anywhere at any time, since there was no record of the shooting.
Remember, the only reason we know Davila was at the scene that day is because Davila testified that he was there. Neither Ramos nor Compean could identify him, they didn’t find any conclusive prints on the van, and they didn’t aprehend him there.
So there was no way we’d ever prosecute him for the drug smuggling — the bullet is the only physical evidence we had tying him to the scene, and that only works if you know he was shot at the scene.
If I'd been the boss here I'd sent both of these guys for remedial weapons training. There was no excuse for missing this puke.