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Cruelbreed
07-24-2009, 10:15 PM
Border Patrol agent killed in San Diego County

Jul 24 01:41 PM US/Eastern
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CAMPO, Calif. (AP) - A U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot to death in a remote area of San Diego County as he tracked suspected illegal immigrants or drug smugglers, authorities said Friday.
The agent was identified as Robert Wimer Rosas in a statement from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The Border Patrol declined to release further details until a news conference scheduled for Friday afternoon.


"I am deeply saddened by the tragic death of one of our own," Napolitano said.

Napolitano said she had directed the department to use its full resources to aid in the murder investigation.

The FBI also is investigating, spokesman Darrell Foxworth said.

The agent spotted a suspicious group of people Thursday night in the Campo area near the Mexican border and called for additional agents to help track them, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Daryl Reed said.

When the suspicious group split up, the agent followed some of the suspects on his own, Reed said.

Other agents lost radio contact with him shortly after 9 p.m. then heard gunshots. They found the agent, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department said he was shot in the head.

Law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Mexico searched both sides of the border but failed to find any suspects.

Since 1919, 108 Border Patrol agents have died on duty, according to The Officer Down Memorial Page Inc., which tracks law-enforcement deaths. Gunfire was the leading cause with 30 deaths, followed by automobile accidents and aircraft accidents.

The Web site, which had already posted Rosas' death, said the agent was 30 and was a three-year veteran who is survived by his wife, a 2-year-old son and an 11-month-old daughter.

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On the Net:

http://www.odmp.org/officer/20005-border-patrol-agent-robert-wimer-rosas

nastyleg
07-25-2009, 04:17 AM
My uncle use to work the border along tucson. He says he misses it. Been with the agency since '83 i think. He is now in DC. Anyways getting to my point....It could take upto 20 mins(Az has huge gaps) for backup to arrive in some parts. 5 minutes is a life time imagine 20 minutes of waiting with hostiles. Fucking scary.

nastyleg
07-27-2009, 06:07 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090727/ap_on_re_us/us_border_agent_shot

CHULA VISTA, Calif. – Authorities in Mexico on Sunday named the man suspected of pulling the trigger in the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent working alone in a remote section of San Diego County.

Mexican federal police announced that the main suspect in the killing is 36-year-old Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, one of five men detained since the Thursday shooting of Agent Robert Rosas.

Parra Valenzuela was taken into custody Friday and was reportedly carrying a Border Patrol-issued pistol at the time of his arrest, police in Tecate said.

Records show Parra Valenzuela had not retained an attorney Sunday.

Four other men suspected of involvement in the killing were detained Saturday on a road near Tecate.

Federal police wouldn't say what role, if any, the other four men may have played in the death but said in a statement that the detentions had been "carried out in support of U.S. government authorities, as a result of the homicide of Border Patrol agent Robert Rosas."

They said at least one of the suspects — alleged immigrant trafficker Jose Eugenio Quintero Ruiz, 49 — had knowledge of the killing.

The statement said Quintero Ruiz identified Parra Valenzuela as "the person who killed the Border Patrol agent."

The other suspects were identified as Quintero Ruiz's brother Jose Eugenio Quintero Ruiz, 49, and taxi drivers Jose Alfredo Camacho, 34, and Antonio Balladares, 57.

Rosas, a 30-year-old father of two, was killed Thursday while responding alone to a suspected border incursion near Campo, a town in rugged, arid terrain in southeastern San Diego County. He was shot in the head and body and was dead when other agents arrived, said Keith Slotter, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego bureau.