C.B.P. News Release

CBP U.S. Border Patrol Agent Assaulted During Flood Relief Operations in N.D.

(Thursday, August 18, 2011)

Minot, N.D. — A U.S. Border Patrol Agent from the El Paso Sector, Mobile Response Team was assaulted and injured while responding to an emergency call Sunday, Aug. 14, in Minot, N.D.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is currently in Minot on an ESF-13 mission, which is in response to the Federal Emergency Management Agency announcement that federal disaster aid was made available to North Dakota to supplement the state and local recovery efforts in the area struck by flooding beginning in April.

CBP’s 31-person team in Minot consists of members from the Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue Team, Border Patrol Mobile Response Team and the Joint Operations Directorate.

The assault took place after a call came into the Minot Police Department of an individual traveling at a high rate of speed through a neighborhood. Several Border Patrol agents, along with Minot police officers, responded to the area and located the vehicle, which had apparently crashed into the curb and was inoperable as a result of the crash.

The suspect was arrested and charged with assaulting a federal officer, driving under the influence, driving under suspension, fleeing on foot, resisting arrest, reckless driving, two counts of striking an unattended vehicle, two counts of failure to give immediate notice of an accident, two counts of leaving the scene of a property accident and open container in a motor vehicle.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has assumed jurisdiction on the charge of assaulting a federal officer.

The assaulted agent remains in the hospital, where he is listed in stable condition.

The President's action for disaster aid authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, through FEMA, to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Contacts For This News Release
Kris Grogan
CBP Public Affairs
Phone: (586) 713-5536

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/new ... 182011.xml