Agent-related shooting just part of busy weekend for Border Patrol
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.02.2007
advertisementWith another agent-related shooting, the discovery of skeletal remains, an arrest of a convicted sex offender and the seizure of 3,600 pounds of marijuana in two separate incidents, it was busy weekend for the Border Patrol.
On Friday night at about 9 p.m. near Amado, a Border Patrol agent fired several times at the driver of a Chevy pickup carrying 10 illegal entrants that was coming at him, said Gustavo Soto, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. There are no indications that anybody was hit but they don't know for sure because the driver and another passenger got out of the car immediately and ran.
The agent was following the group on foot when he saw them load into the Chevy pickup truck. He shined his flashlight at the driver in an attempt to get him to stop but he accelerated and was heading toward the agent when shots were fired, Soto said.
Agents apprehended 10 illegal border crossers, all from Mexico, who were in the bed of the pickup. None of them were injured. They weren't able to find the two who ran, he said.
Nine of the 10 illegal entrants maintain in Border Patrol custody as witnesses. The other was voluntarily returned because he had chicken pox, Soto said. The Border Patrol has opened an internal investigation into the shooting and the Pima County Sheriff's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are also investigating it.
It is the fifth Border Patrol agent-related shooting since January in the Tucson Sector.
On Saturday evening south of Three Points on Arizona 286, agents found the human remains of a Mexican woman in her 40s after receiving a call from a resident who found her, Soto said. She apparently died from exposure. They have registered 49 known border deaths in the sector since Oct. 1, down from 55 at the same time last fiscal year, he said.
Saturday night at the Nogales detention center, a records check of a 24-year-old Mexican illegal entrant revealed he had been convicted of sexually abusing a child under 9-years-old in Illinois, Soto said. He was prosecuted for reentering the country illegally and then deported, Soto said.
Also on Saturday, agents found 1,670 pounds of marijuana inside an abandoned Ford F350 pickup near San Miguel on the Tohono O'odham Nation and 1,953 pounds of dope inside an abandoned pickup that caught fire near Sonoita on Arizona 83, Soto said. The 3,623 pounds of marijuana has an estimated value of $3.6 million, according to figures from the National Drug Intelligence Center.
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at bmccombs@azstarnet.com or 520-573-4213.
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