From Herald Wire Services

MIAMI

The tear-gassing of bystanders was ''an unavoidable consequence'' of the U.S. raid to seize Elián González, the Cuban boy who was found drifting at sea, and doesn't warrant the government's paying damages to anyone who was injured, a Justice Department attorney said in closing arguments Monday.

Thirteen bystanders and demonstrators are suing for up to $250,000 each, saying they were gassed during the April 2000 raid to return the then 6-year-old boy to his father in Cuba.

U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore, who heard the trial without a jury, will issue his judgment after attorneys submit depositions from two government lawyers. That is expected to take two weeks.

Attorney Michael Hurley, representing 12 bystanders, called the gassing ''an overreaction'' and argued that agents were to use gas only if an order was given to repel ''a mass breach'' of demonstrators at a barricade. No order was given and there was no major breach, he said.