Feds confirm fifth man in custody in border agent's killing
By Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Wednesday, January 5, 2011 10:06 am

A fifth man is in custody in connection with the Dec. 14 fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent near Nogales, the U.S. Marshals office has confirmed.

The man was handed over to the U.S. Marshals on Tuesday to make his initial appearance in court, said Ray Kondo, assistant chief for the U.S. Marshals in Tucson. He was arrested in the area of the shooting on Dec. 14 but had been in the hospital, Kondo said.

He and the four others are being held on immigration charges for now, he said. It’s unknown if any of them will be charged in connection with the agent’s killing.

The arrests of four people had been made public on Dec. 15 but it was unknown until recently if authorities had found a fifth suspect they were pursuing.

Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed during a shootout with suspected border bandits near Peck Canyon northwest of Nogales late in the evening of Dec. 14. The FBI, which is handling the investigation, hasn’t made a public comment in weeks and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has not yet announced any criminal charges in relation to the shooting.

Terry, 40, was the 10th agent to die on duty in the Border Patrol Tucson Sector since 1926 and the first since 1998 to be killed. Terry was buried in his hometown of Detroit on Dec. 22.

A public memorial service in Tucson is planned for Jan. 21 at 11 a.m. at Kino Stadium, formerly known as Tucson Electric Park.

Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com


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