Feds make San Jose arrest in connection with border agent's shooting

By Sandra Gonzales

Posted: 07/24/2009 10:13:34 PM PDT
Updated: 07/25/2009 09:51:43 AM PDT

San Jose became the focus of a manhunt Friday after federal investigators tracked down at least one person at O'Connor Hospital who was taken into custody as part of the investigation into the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in San Diego County.

In a particularly brutal attack Thursday night, Agent Robert Rosas, 30, was killed in a spray of bullets that struck him in the head and multiple times in the body while he investigated a suspected illegal border crossing near Campo, a small town east of San Diego.

His death immediately sparked a wide-ranging dragnet that led federal agents 500 miles north to San Jose, where they arrested at least one person in connection with the case. It was unclear exactly how that person may be involved.

Though some news reports indicated two men and one woman were taken into custody, Bay Area law enforcement sources confirmed only one person was arrested at the hospital Friday by agents from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. FBI agents provided backup. The suspect was released from the hospital and was in custody Friday night.

San Jose police officer Jermaine Thomas said local police assisted authorities in the case, but he did not divulge details, referring questions to the FBI.

An O'Connor hospital spokeswoman said that none of the people targeted were still at the hospital and confirmed the presence of federal investigators at the hospital Friday afternoon.

Federal authorities, however, remained tight-lipped on the case. In an e-mail to the Mercury News on Friday night, an FBI spokesman said, "No one has been arrested and/or charged specifically with the killing of Rosas." But other Bay Area law enforcement sources say the person taken into the custody was believed to be associated in some way with the case.

One media report said federal agents were led to the hospital after tracing cell phone signals of one of the people arrested.

Authorities were checking hospitals on both sides of the California-Mexico border after finding blood evidence at the scene where Rosas was shot, which they said indicated at least one suspect had been injured in the confrontation.

At least one other agent in the field heard gunshots after Rosas left to respond to the call. The agent tried to reach Rosas on his radio but was unable to make contact.

Investigators said they don't yet know if Rosas was able to return fire during the incident.

"It's too early in the investigation to say that with any certainty," Keith Slotter of the FBI San Diego office told The Associated Press.

He said there was no indication that Rosas had been specifically targeted. But he wouldn't rule out the possibility that Rosas was slain by drug traffickers or people involved in helping illegal immigrants cross the border.

Officials have recently voiced concerns that the drug-cartel battles plaguing Mexico could spill into the United States, even to the point of attacks on U.S. law enforcement officials.

"Everybody is disgusted, disgusted that a criminal can do this," said Richard Barlow, acting chief of the Border Patrol in San Diego.

Officials said they were working closely with their counterparts in Mexico. Police in Tecate, Mexico, announced late Friday that they had arrested a man walking near the crime scene with a Border Patrol-issued weapon shortly after the shooting, the Los Angeles Times reported. The man, Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, 36, was injured and was taken to a hospital, according to a news release.

Rosas, a three-year Border Patrol veteran, was married and had a 2-year-old son and an 11-month-old daughter. He was the first Border Patrol agent to die in a shooting in more than a decade, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page Inc., which tracks fallen officers using information provided by law enforcement agencies. Another agent, Luis Aguilar, was intentionally run over by a fleeing man driving a drug-laden Hummer in January 2008.

"My thoughts and condolences are with Agent Rosas' family and his fellow agents at this difficult time," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Sandra Gonzales at 408-920-5778.

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