CASA GRANDE, Ariz.
No problem, just wanted to make sure you saw it. Be lucky you have conceal carry, we don't in Ohio.
Stay safe FRiend. :)
Well, I was stuck in traffic forever at Elliot, but alas, that was just one of the shot up vehicles. I read elsewhere that the vehicle with the shooters was found near Riggs Road and I-10. They caught the guys in the "desert."
As decent as the citizens of that town are, I'm surprised.
No, I'm not. The truck stops and the towns are totally separate entities.
There's a Flying J at Exit 208 that has the best gas prices between Lordsburg and Phoenix. I used to gas up there all the time. I don't anymore, there are too many 'taxis' full of Hispanics who make me real nervous.
I don't know the details of this incident but we have illegals waking up dead in the desert every week. Last week there was a pickup truck chased into the desert and when final found (sans occupants) it had 1200 pounds of marijuana in the bed. What the news media didn't report but showed up on video was that the dope was packaged in those homemade back-packs...the mules ferry the dope across in payment for their passage to the coyotes...once in a while rival coyotes try to steal each others dope and try to steal each others mules to ransom back to their families, and once in a while, they just like to kill each other.
If the illegals weren't so eager for the big drug smuggling money, there wouldn't be this massacre going on.
True. It's big business in AZ...More here, check out the
Disturbing Trendgif http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1105freewayshoot.html
4 held in I-10 shooting deaths
Federal help sought after 4 die in smuggler attack
Senta Scarborough and Chris Fiscus
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 5, 2003 12:00 AM
A freeway shooting Tuesday involving feuding immigrant smugglers left four dead and crime scenes stretching from Casa Grande to the Ahwatukee Foothills.
The ambush left the dead scattered across the Interstate 10 median, sent helicopters searching for immigrants who fled into the desert and created a nine-hour traffic bottleneck as the westbound lanes of I-10 were shut down.
Local authorities, who called the incident "a rolling gunfight," asked for federal help to curb a trend of violent attacks involving immigrant smugglers.
"This appears to be a load of undocumented aliens that was being hijacked or kidnapped from another group of smugglers," Pinal County Sheriff Roger Vanderpool said. "It was clearly retaliation and to send a message."
The smugglers who were attacked near Casa Grande had kidnapped the immigrants from the assailants in southern Pinal County, he said.
The suspected shooters later caught up to the other group about 8:30 a.m. as the smugglers headed toward Phoenix in a two-vehicle convoy.
They opened fire from a van, killing four and injuring five others. The two vehicles carried 24 people.
"They were really bold and really brazen to drive on the interstate and start shooting individuals," Vanderpool said. "We need help from the federal government."
The shooting grabbed national media attention and came on the same day that Mexican President Vicente Fox visited Phoenix to discuss, among other topics, the trafficking in undocumented immigrants from Mexico.
Vanderpool said four suspects, all Hispanic men, were in custody. They were traveling in a gray minivan and were taken into custody near I-10 and Riggs Road.
Three assault-style weapons were found inside the van. No weapons were found in the other two vehicles, and there was no evidence that any of the victims returned fire.
At least 18 people were in a pickup, which had 28 bullet holes, all from large- and small-caliber assault-style weapons. Authorities said the entire episode lasted 20 minutes.
None of the suspects or the dead was identified by late Tuesday. Three of the five wounded remained hospitalized Tuesday night.
"One of our agents found a guy with his toe blown off, his toe still in his hand," said Kyle Barnett, associate special agent in charge for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The bureau put 40 agents and a Black Hawk helicopter into the desert to look for those who fled the scene. At least 11 undocumented immigrants linked to the incident were later found near Sacaton and detained.
"Everybody that's been interviewed so far has claimed to be a Mexican citizen who is in this country illegally," Barnett said.
Disturbing trend
Barnett said highway hijacking aimed at smugglers and immigrants has become "a disturbing trend." It typically involves two hit vehicles and armed assailants.
"This is not the first time we're seeing this. It's a tactic that dopers used for ripping off loads," he explained. "They just carjack and steal the aliens, then hold them hostage until somebody pays."
Barnett said those involved are especially vicious criminals. While smugglers and illegal immigrants may have broken the law, top priority in this case will be catching and prosecuting the rip-off specialists.
Tactics used in the drug trade now are being used in human trafficking, and the impact is being felt far from the border. A local group recently landed a $1 million federal grant to launch the Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking, citing the problem in the state. The concern may be heightened after Tuesday's shooting.
Rundown of events
Authorities gave the following account:
About 8:30 a.m., a brown pickup truck and a green SUV were together, headed west toward Phoenix. A gray minivan pulled alongside and opened fire at milepost 180, just north of Casa Grande.
About a mile down the road, the pickup pulled over and several occupants fled into the desert. Four people were dead at the scene, including the driver.
The driver of the SUV also was shot. He got out of the vehicle, and a passenger grabbed the wheel and drove off without him.
Department of Public Safety and immigration authorities stopped the vehicle a few minutes later near Elliot Road. Five people were still in the SUV, a woman who was shot and four men who were uninjured. Windows on the vehicle were shot out.
Soon after, Gila River Indian Community police discovered the minivan on the dirt shoulder of Riggs Road, a few hundred yards west of I-10. A short time later, the four suspects were found in the desert and taken into custody.
As the incident unfolded, traffic from the south backed up, causing an accident that injured three people, one seriously.
Randy Karrer, 42, was in serious but "stable" condition after his SUV was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer. Karrer, operations chief for the Northwest Fire District, which serves an area north and west of Tucson, was headed to Phoenix for a meeting.
The tractor-trailer driver, Douglas Siegworth, 46, of New Mexico, was uninjured. Karrer's vehicle then hit a car driven by Roberto Benavides, 43, from California. He and a passenger, Stanley Rackow, 88, suffered minor injuries and were treated and released.
Several agencies spent the day at the various scenes, searching for evidence, trying to identify the dead and injured, and trying to piece together who was smuggling and who was being smuggled.
Vanderpool also repeated the plea for federal help, especially for rural agencies with strained manpower and budgets.
"We have enough homegrown crime without having to deal with immigration," he said. "It's a battle for turf, just like any drug cartel battling for turf in the drug trade. This is a battle in the struggle for human beings."
Reporters Dennis Wagner and Niusha Faghih contributed to this article.
Reach the reporter at senta.scarborough@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-7937.
