saw this goin down the other day and wondered "whats goin on"  locked and loaded and sat on my porch and watched.  now i know what happened.


Friday, August 12, 2005

Local News

BP agent kills suspected drug smuggler during pursuit

BY BILL HESS
Friday, August 12, 2005 12:01 PM MDT



Herald/ Review

PALOMINAS - An unidentified man was shot and killed Wednesday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent after he fled from a Cochise County sheriff's deputy.

The man was apparently smuggling more than a ton of marijuana, authorities said.

The incident that led to the man's death began slightly before 8 p.m. when the deputy tried to make a traffic stop on Palominas Road, sheriff's office spokeswoman Carol Capas said Thursday.

The driver of the green Dodge truck, a Hispanic man in his late 20s or early 30s, refused to stop and sped off at high speed with the deputy pursuing, she said.

Another deputy was in the area and began to deploy tire deflation devices. While in the process of setting up the devices, the suspect's vehicle, which had stolen license plates on it, approached the second deputy and swerved at the county law enforcement officer in "an aggressive manner," Capas said.


"The deputy subsequently fired one shot from his service weapon toward the oncoming vehicle," she said.

The fleeing driver than turned eastbound on Highway 92, continuing for five miles on the state road before turning off the highway and heading in a southeasterly direction, Capas said.

Crashing through several fences, the driver went across the desert for about two miles until the front tires were damaged and flattened.

The driver then got out of the truck and fled on foot for about another two miles, Capas added.

U.S. Border Patrol agents came upon the man and an agent fired his weapon, which killed the man, Capas said.

Jose Garza, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, said the FBI is also involved in the investigation because it was an officer-involved shooting.

Garza said he would not comment if the agent was threatened by the man, because it is part of the investigation.

Capas also declined to say what led to the fatal shooting.

The nationality of the man is unknown.

Mexican Consul Miguel Escobar Valdez, who works in Douglas, said he hadn't received information about the shooting and could not say if the dead man was a Mexican.

A spokeswoman for the Cochise County Medical Examiner said an autopsy was being performed Thursday afternoon. She had no information on where the man may be from.

Capas said 2,169.1 pounds of marijuana were found in the Dodge truck.

Well done on their part.