Battle Over U.S.-Mexico Border Fence Heats Up

FOX News Channel ^ | March 15, 2004

[TERMINATTOR]

LOS ANGELES

[TERMINATTOR]

	Tombstone, Arizona     Thursday, February 19, 2004    Volume XVII No. 25
	MARINES, BORDER PATROL, CUSTOMS,AND BISBEE POLICE COME UNDER AUTOMATIC WEAPONS FIRE AFTER WILD CAR CHASE!!
	A high-speed car chase ended with Bisbee police, Border Patrol agents and a detail of the United States Marines coming under automatic weapons fire near the U.S./Mexico border two miles west of Naco, Arizona on Tuesday morning, February 16, 2004. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Susan Herskovits confirmed on Wednesday that the agency is involved in the investigation, “because it involves an assault on federal law enforcement agents and involves gun fire from across the international boundary with Mexico,” she told The Tumbleweed. No officers were reported to be injured in the “rolling gun battle” that ended with a white Ford F150 pick up truck getting stuck in the heavy underbrush as it attempted to make a return dash across the border near the end of the border wall, west of Naco, Az. port of entry. Herskovits explained that FBI agents responded to the scene after Bisbee Police and Customs agents reported coming under gunfire during the chase with the truck. “Non-federal law enforcement agents were involved in following a vehicle suspected of transporting drugs. The officers were involved in a chase that ended two miles west of the Naco, Arizona point of entry. The pursuit ended on border road as the chase came to a halt near a Marine Corp detail making repairs to the border wall and fence extending west from Naco,” Herskovits stated in a phone interview. “This investigation is far from over. We know there was a single male individual in the white truck, and two more men in the second vehicle. This is pretty serious. Marijuana was recovered from the white truck and we know that at least 20 to 30 rounds were fired at the officers and the Marines. The military said they took cover as they were fired upon from multiple directions, from both sides of the border fence. It’s amazing there were no injuries,” Herskovits reported. Detective Hoskins, of the Bisbee Police Department, added, “At first there was a pursuit that began at 8:32 a.m. when an Arizona Department of Public Safety police officer tried to pull over a Ford pickup truck near the Lavender Pit on Highway 80. The truck rammed the police vehicle, which resulted in the officer shooting at the suspect. This quickly became a multiple agency pursuit involving not only the white Ford truck but also Bisbee Police Chief James Elkins and border patrol. Hoskins stated they knew the vehicles and their habits, “These were guys we have been watching,” Hoskins, said. During the pursuit Chief Elkins also noticed the second vehicle, a blue and silver Tahoe, as he tailed what he thought to be a suspicious vehicle on highway 92 west of Bisbee. “As the chief approached the vehicles they took off at a high rate of speed. Both vehicles began to take evasive maneuvers in an attempt to shake law enforcement. We ended up in a chase that led through the county building complex on Melody Lane. At that point customs and border patrol had entered the pursuit that headed west to Wilson Road, where the vehicles left the paved road and headed cross - country towards the end of the wall west of Naco,” Hoskins reported to The Tumbleweed on Wednesday. “At that point the man in the white Ford attempted to ram Chief Elkins’ car and the chase led right to where a group of marines were making repairs on the end of the wall, and here’s where it got crazy,” Hoskins said. “The truck bottoms out and the first male subject gets out, reaches behind the drivers’ seat and grabs a metal box and runs to a hole in the fence and disappears on the other side. Shots are being fired from both sides and the officers and the Marines take cover. Suddenly the blue Tahoe appears with two men – one of them drives the other is laying down suppression fire towards the officers. They drive up to the white Ford, the subject with the weapon jumps out and looks behind the seat. I suppose he was looking for the metal box, the first man had taken from behind the seat. The driver then fires suppression fire to cover for the subject at the first vehicle. They return to the blue Tahoe and proceed to drive through an opening in the fence that was predetermined. They knew where they were and where they were going. Scouts carrying weapons were seen on hills on the other side – the officers were fired upon from various locations from both sides of the border,” recalled Hoskins. “They were using fully automatic weapons. We think they (the weapons) were Sks’,”said detective Hoskins. He added that the FBI had processed the vehicle however the Bisbee Police Department had the vehicle impounded - along with 622.2 pounds of marijuana found in the back of the white Ford truck. Hoskins verified that no action to suppress the aggressors was taken. “Our policy is to never return fire across the border as a department. I know that no one, not the Marines, or any of the officers on our side returned fire across the border.”

[muawiyah]

Where ever would the members of the Coastal Commission get their housemaids and other domestics so cheap if that fence were completed.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The San Diego Audubon Society, Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society, Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association, San Diego BayKeeper and the Center for Biological Diversity support the coastal commission's lawsuit.

Ridiculous!

[FutureMarine]

Long overdue if you ask me. But what are the chances the president would actually override the court on grounds of national security? He seems to favor open borders.

“Our policy is to never return fire across the border as a department. I know that no one, not the Marines, or any of the officers on our side returned fire across the border.”

You know, if they let the Marines return fire, the problem would end swiftly.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[ysoitanly]

Any organization with 'diversity' in its name is poison nowadays. Walk down any street in California, and you will hardly find an English-speaking person. 'The government' is paying for these peoples' needs, not us, though, so we don't need to worry. /sarcasm

[Missouri]

Ping

[TERMINATTOR]

“They were using fully automatic weapons. We think they (the weapons) were Sks’,”said detective Hoskins.

If they were SKS's, they were not automatic weapons. AK's I could believe.

I'm suprised the Marines were even there. Now give em some ammo, and let em do what they do best!

[A CA Guy]

One more terror attack of notable size and this border issue will end up news along with illegals to the point of maybe actually doing something about both IMO! I've said this for over a year now, but still hope we never take that kind of terrorist hit again.

[boris]

They should electrify those fences...

[longtermmemmory]

National security trumps envirowackos.

Besides we now know the lesson environmentalists have taught us. In a designated area for development, KILL EVERTHING before devolpment papers start.

[Dubya]

Protect our borders bump.

[Travis McGee]

BTTT!

[Jorge]

The state coastal commission, which controls development along California's coastline, also claims the fence will damage or threaten the Tijuana estuary, which runs along the border between California and Mexico and serves as a refuge for threatened birds.

Birds? This is a joke right?

[longtermmemmory]

How would you give fair warning to illiterates who can't read ANY language?

[boris]

"How would you give fair warning to illiterates who can't read ANY language?"

I dunno. Perhaps the pile of decomposing illegals on the southern side of the fence might do the trick...

--Boris

[longtermmemmory]

Decomposing dead bodies stink.

not practical

[Feiny]

I celebrate diversity:

[ETERNAL WARMING]

These incidences happen regularly. The only thing I find intriging is the fact that this gets ignored by the media. A total blackout. Fox News included.