Van driver arrested after Border Patrol agent opens fire

AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 2/6/07 | Anne Gearan - ap

[NormsRevenge]

A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot at a driver suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants Tuesday, authorities said. No one was injured.

The driver tried to run down the agent and was arrested later after being pulled over Interstate 15, said Damon Foreman, a Border Patrol spokesman. Traffic was snarled for hours during the morning commute.

Foreman said agents became suspicious of a van they spotted on a dusty road near San Diego's Otay Mesa border crossing around 4:30 a.m. and followed the driver.

As an agent approached the van on state Route 905, the driver put the vehicle in reverse and tried to pin the official between the van and the patrol car, Foreman said. The agent jumped aside and his partner fired at least once at the van driver.

The driver was not hit and drove away, Foreman said.

The agents followed the van onto the busy freeway and pulled it over a second time, when they arrested the driver, who was not identified. Foreman did not know if there were other people in the van.

[wastedyears]

Poor guys will probably be arrested.

[wizecrakker]

So when are the Feds gonna throw this agent in jail for doing his job?

[misterrob]

No joke. When the cops shoot at people in the hood Jessie Jackoff and Co. claim Civil Rights abuse.

[rednesss]

Never, they seem to have followed procedures and didn't try to cover up the incident.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I wonder how many years in prison the agent is going to get, and how many millions of dollars the coyote is going to get from the US government?

[toomanylaws]

Seems like they need to spend a little more time at the shooting range. Then they wouldn't have had to pull them over the second time.

[samtheman]

Should the agent be going to prison soon?

[1rudeboy]

I wonder what happened to the BP agents who are afraid of firing their weapons?

[xuberalles]

God forbid someone try to stop them! These poor guys get no respect!


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[Wallace T.]

The Border Patrol agent did exactly what the Texas deputy sheriff did: fire at a vehicle that tried to run him down. The Texas deputy sheriff received a ten year prison sentence. Hopefully, the US Attorney in Southern California will not pursue a political agenda that Johnny Sutton appears to be pursuing in West and South Texas.

[1rudeboy]

The Border Patrol agents in Texas were not firing at a moving vehicle, nor anyone attempting to drive a vehicle, by their own testimony.

[rednesss]

Facts, facts, facts, it's always facts with people like you. </s>

[WTSand]

Gilmer Hernandez

[1rudeboy]

Oh. Never mind.

[Wallace T.]

I am not referring to the Border Patrol agents, Compean and Ramos, who were shooting at a man running, but to Edwards County, Texas, deputy sheriff Guillermo F. Hernandez, who fired at a vehicle after the driver ran him over. Hernandez was convicted recently of violating the "civil rights" of a Mexican national (in the U.S. illegally, of course) who was struck in the lip by a bullet or metal fragments.

[rednesss]

Now that's stretching the truth. He did not get ran over. He was standing next to the van when the guy took off, in the forward direction. Yes when he drove forward, the van probably did move towards him a few inches as it was accelerating forward and the driver was turning into the lane, it would have required him to take one step back to miss being brushed by the van, he was not going to be pinned between two vehicles. He decided to open fire on a vehicle that was not posing a threat to him, which is against the law.

[Wallace T.]

The witnesses to the event were the deputy sheriff and the illegals. If you choose to believe the word of criminals, which is what people in the United States against the law are, against that of a lawman with no blemish on his record, that is your business. In any case, if the deputy abused his authority, it should have been a local matter, to be handled by the district attorney for Edwards County, or the Texas Attorney General, and not the Feds. Rest assured that had the deputy fired at a van of citizens unlawfully, Johnny Sutton would have ignored it.

The record of last six years of the current Administration, or for that matter the Clinton Administration and its predecessors, has been one of non-enforcement of the laws passed by Congress to control the flow of illegals across the U.S.- Mexican border. Prosecuting Federal and local officers may well be intended to send a message: do not become aggressive in confronting suspected illegals or drug runners. Keep in mind that Johnny Sutton is well connected politically, having been criminal justice policy director for President Bush while he served as governor of Texas. His actions certainly have received the approval of his superiors.

Both the current Administration and the Democrats desire to eliminate the borders of the United States as a matter of significance for anyone except Rand McNally. This prosecution would certainly fit into the pattern of encouraging open borders.

[libbylu]

Have the feds not shown up to arrest him yet? Or is he lucky not to be in Arizona.

[gubamyster]

ping