(CNN) -- A lawsuit against the United States brought by the parents of a 15-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a border patrol agent has been dismissed by a U.S. district judge.
Under the ruling, the family's claims against the agent himself can proceed separately. The ruling, which came down August 11, was first reported by the El Paso Times on Thursday.
Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was fatally shot June 7, 2010.
Authorities said at the time that Hernandez was throwing rocks at the agent from the Mexican side of the border before the agent opened fire.
Hernandez had a history of involvement with human smuggling and was on a list of repeat juvenile offenders, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said at the time of the shooting.
The officer, identified in court documents as Jesus Mesa Jr., received widespread condemnation from those who questioned his use of deadly force against the teen.
In January, Hernandez's parents, Jesus Hernandez and Maria Guadalupe Guereca, filed a lawsuit against Mesa, the United States and every office involved with border protection.
The suit alleged that the government was liable for the teen's death under the Federal Tort Claim Act, the Alien Tort Statute and the U.S. Constitution.
The parents alleged that Mesa "maliciously, wrongfully, or otherwise tortuously shot" Hernandez and claimed negligence on part of the government.
Judge David Briones ruled, in short, that precedent prohibits the family from suing the United States because the injury happened on the Mexican side of the border, even though the action originated on the U.S. side.
But the judgment also did something else that was welcomed by the family's lawyer, Bob Hilliard.
In his order, the judge separated the claims against the United States from the claims against Mesa. Under normal circumstances, Hilliard said, the defense in such a case would have to wait for the entire lawsuit to be resolved before the ruling could be appealed.
By severing the claims against the United States and then closing that case by dismissing the charges, the judge allowed Hernandez's family to appeal last week's ruling immediately.
Separately, the claims against Mesa continue.
Hilliard said the defense is arguing that the facts in the Hernandez case differ from the ones in the precedent-setting case that the judge based his ruling on, and thinks that an appeals court is the appropriate place to address that question.
The incident in question was partly caught on video.
The video showed part of the buildup before the incident, with several individuals running underneath the Puente Negro, a railroad span that connects the two countries.
In the distance, a U.S. Border Patrol officer on a bicycle can be seen making his way toward the area. Seconds later, the officer is seen getting off the bicycle and approaching two of the four suspected Mexican nationals who had just crossed through an opening in the fence. One of the people is detained by the officer, but never handcuffed, and is dragged a short distance. This happened on the U.S. side of the border.
Moments later, the officer points what appears to be his firearm in the direction of a second person, standing about 60 feet away on the Mexican side of the border. The video shows the person running away.
Seconds later, two gunshots can be heard on the video. A third gunshot is heard in a different sequence of the tape. After the shooting, another person is seen running in the upper left side of screen, away from the incident.
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