Posted on 09/05/2009 1:02:06 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
BROWNSVILLE — Stray bullets from a shootout across the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, pierced a building and a car Friday at the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, prompting university police to close campus early. No one at the university was injured.
"There has been report of a shooting incident on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River and it has posed a problem to the Riverside campus. Individuals in the Education and Business Complex, the new Library and the new Classroom Building on University Blvd. should leave the area. All others on campus should avoid this area and take necessary precautions," read an advisory on the campus Web site.
University spokeswoman Letty Fernandez said the first advisory was posted at 2:45 p.m., about an hour after the gunfire reportedly began.
"We pretty much sent everybody home at 4:45 (p.m.)," she said. "I'm not aware of the campus closing for anything like this before."
A 6:30 p.m. update said the campus would remain closed until Tuesday, except for already scheduled Saturday classes. Fernandez said that might change with updates posted Friday evening or early today. Campus would already have been closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
Campus employees were urged to check with campus police and take precautions if reporting to work on Saturday. Soccer games scheduled for Friday evening and today were moved to a public park.
Customs and Border Protection spokesman Eddie Flores confirmed that there was "an event" in Mexico but had little information. He said Brownsville's international bridges remained open without any traffic diversions.
"Our officers have been put on alert," he said.
Brownsville residents told the Brownsville Herald they heard gunfire for more than an hour.
KGBT-TV reported via Twitter that the shootout stemmed from the capture of a Zeta member. Zetas are said to be the enforcement wing of the Gulf Cartel.
The UTB campus borders the Rio Grande.
I’m never going to get used to all this hopey changey stuff.
I’ve always thought that soccer games could be made more exciting with several paint-ball shooters, given unbridled discretion, stationed along the sidelines, encouraging slackers and punishing yellow card recipients.
Actual gunfire never occured to me, but they may be on to something.
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
It’s total anarchy down there, at least in the border regions. I wouldn’t go to Mexico on a bet.
“Click” “click”! That’s the sound of Mexican bullets striking the tall, metal American border wall.
“Yikes! Even the bullets try to sneak across the border.”
lol...yep and more on the way. I bet half the narco leaders of Mexico are living in the US. There’s thousands of cartel members in my North West area fighting for control of land to grow dope AND burning down our forests thousands of acres at a time!
“I gotta work on my aim.”
“No, no, no, don’t think of it as work! The whole point is just to enjoy yourself.”
UTB? University of Taco Bell?
University of Texas-Brownsville
ROTFL!! That's great! I'm from that area originally, you just don't know how close you are with that! Good work.
Back during the Mexican Revolution there were so many fights along the border that Americans used to watch them from grandstands in certain cities so they could see all the action.
Today’s gunmen are usually narcos fighting the cops or military.
Classic Animal House. I wonder if a building tall enough could be found in the area to send some return rounds of happiness from a Barrett M82A1.
Why do I always have to think of everything?
Shoot back! Maybe from a different spot. Engineers should be able to help with the ballistics of “plunging fire”.
When you are in range, they are in range too. Of course with a .50 BMG you could back up a bit, and they'd still be in range. :)
It's pretty flat down there. There is a rather large flat topped water tower just a couple hundred meters "cross range" from where the rounds need to be coming from. That has to be a "finger" of Mexico that sort of sticks up into Brownsville, following a loop of the Rio Grande. Can't quite see how rounds could be "accidently" heading into Mexico, unless someone has their backs to the river pretty much at that little finger, and the rounds going into Brownsville are "incoming" for them.
Looks like a good place to set up, say an M-240 or two, would be on top of the canopy over the border crossing checkpoint, which is right at the tip of that finger. Ma Duece could be a bit farther back, with M-240s or M-249s to it's flanks.
the shooting reportedly began around 1:30 p.m. near Calle Primera and Calle Canales. Neighbors in the area told The Brownsville Herald they heard gunshots and loud explosions for more than an hour.
The shooting was said to have continued to the intersection of Calle Nicaragua and Calle Acapulco in Colonia Delicias
That is not in the "finger" that I'd thought, But the second location is only about a block from the border, call it about 100 meters, in a "Colonia" called "Bagdad". However it's about a mile almost due south of the UTB campus. The campus borders the river, but the land along the river is pretty much empty.
THAT sounds like a "plan" to me! :~) I wonder how surprised those folks on the other side would be to find well aimed full auto and Barrett M82A1 fire coming back at them?
It just fries my GUTS to think how the ROE for our national guardsmen and border patrol officers to have faced armed incursions by the Mexican military (acting as paid cover for smugglers) onto our own soil for the last 10+ years and recorded over 200 armed incursions only to be ordered by the chicken livered powers that be to run and hide rather than take invaders under fire! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
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