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Motorist killed by customs inspector
By L. Anne Newell
The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), February 14, 2003
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/fri/30214CUSTOMSSHOOTING.html

A U.S. Customs Service inspector fatally shot a motorist Thursday at the
Lukeville port of entry after he apparently threatened the inspector and
tried to drive through the port, officials said.

The motorist, who was not identified, was pronounced dead at the scene
after his red Chevrolet Suburban drove through the port and came to rest
about 85 yards down Highway 85, said Roger Maier, a customs spokesman. The
vehicle crossed into opposing lanes as it drifted, he said, but there were
no other vehicles on the road.

The 46-year-old customs inspector, a 17-month veteran of the agency whose
name also was not released, was not injured in the incident, Maier said.
The shooting occurred only a few miles from where National Park Service
Ranger Kris Eggle was killed in a shootout last August, about 150 miles
southwest of Tucson

The incident began at 8:50 a.m., as the Chevy, which had Arizona plates,
tried to enter the United States, Maier said.

The inspector thought the vehicle, the only one in the port at the time,
was suspicious, Maier said, and other inspectors recognized the driver as
one who'd forced his way through the port at least twice before.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department is investigating the shooting. Sgt.
James Ogden said the inspector "recognized the driver as a port-runner."

The inspector asked the motorist to comply with a search of the vehicle,
Maier said, but the man did not.

A confrontation ensued and the inspector felt he was in danger and fired
his Glock 9 mm semiautomatic handgun once into the vehicle, Maier said.

Customs investigators had not been able to search the dead man's SUV by
Thursday evening, Maier said, and could not say whether it contained
illegal drugs or contraband.

Ogden said the Suburban was sealed at the scene by homicide detectives and
transported to Tucson to be examined.

The inspector - who worked for an East Coast police department before
joining Customs - should receive time off to recover from the incident, he
said.

Authorities closed the port while they investigated the incident.
Department of Public Safety officers turned away motorists at Why, some 30
miles to the north, said Officer Frank Valenzuela, a spokesman.

Maier said the closure didn't impede a large number of motorists,
estimating 800 to 900 vehicles enter the United States via the port each
day. Normally open 6 a.m. to midnight, the port was reopened at 5 p.m.,
officials said.

The incident was unusual, he said, but not the first of its kind.

In addition to the shootout that killed Eggle, a Mexican customs inspector
was fatally shot about 50 yards south of the Nogales port of entry in
November 1997. Last year, a Tohono O'odham police officer was seriously
injured when he was run over by a smuggler's vehicle in a remote area about
eight miles north of the border.

And late Tuesday, a U.S. Border Patrol agent suffered a concussion when two
members of a group of suspected illegal entrants he was tracking hit him on
the head, neck and back with a large rock. Early the next day, two groups
of illegal entrants said they'd been shot at in the desert near Three
Points. One man was hit in the stomach but is expected to survive.

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Suspected border runner killed; port closed 7 hrs.
Some 200 headed to Rocky Point are stranded all day
By Irene Hsiao
The Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen, February 14, 2003
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/2_14_03lukeville.html

LUKEVILLE -- A man U.S. Customs Service officials say had raced through the
Lukeville port of entry without stopping at least twice before was shot to
death there yesterday after a confrontation with a U.S. Customs inspector.

The man, who has not been identified, may have been smuggling drugs,
Customs officials said.

Authorities had not yet searched the vehicle and did not know whether drugs
were in it.

The man stopped at the port of entry about 8:50 a.m. in a red Chevrolet
Suburban with an Arizona license plate and a "scuffle ensued" with a
46-year-old Customs inspector, said Pima County Sheriff's Department
spokesmanSgt. Jim Ogden.

The Sheriff's Department is investigating the incident.

The man drove about 100 yards after he was shot, Ogden said. The truck ran
into a shrub and stopped under a sign marking the entrance to Mexico.

The inspector suspected the driver was smuggling drugs because the man got
in his way while he was inspecting the vehicle, said Customs spokesman
Roger Maier.

Ogden did not have the details of the scuffle and did not know why the
inspector fired his pistol.

Maier said he did not know where the bullet hit the man. Customs inspectors
carry 9 mm semiautomatic Glocks, he said.

The sealed vehicle was hauled to sheriff's headquarters on Benson Highway
yesterday and will be searched today.

Authorities have not yet said whether the man had a weapon.

The inspector has been with Customs for 17 months. He is a retired East
Coast police officer, Maier said.

Border running, called port running by Customs officials, is more common in
urban ports of entry such as El Paso, Texas, than in smaller ones, such as
Lukeville.

Port runners drive through border crossings without stopping in order to
avoid inspection.

Port running does not occur as often as it did 10 years ago in El Paso,
Maier said. He said it peaked in 1994 with about 30 port runners a month.
Now it's down to one or two a month, he said. Large concrete barriers and
stop sticks, devices that puncture tires, were installed to stop the
runners, Maier said.

After yesterday's incident, an estimated 200 vehicles were stranded near
the Lukeville port the crossing point to the popular tourist destination
Puerto Peñasco, Son., or Rocky Point. The crossing was shut down during the
day and reopened at 4:40 p.m..

"This is just awful," said Kathy Ross, a secretary from Tucson who was one
of the drivers stranded on the American side of the border. She was
planning to stay in her Rocky Point trailer for the first time. "This is
very sad, whatever the case may be. There's too much violence in this world."

Also stranded were Carlos Sarabia, 28, and Carlos Borja, 21, who live in
Rocky Point. They had been in Phoenix for a soccer game and were going home.

Sarabia was missing work and Borja was missing school while they were stranded.

"It looks like I won't be going to school," Borja said in Spanish. He goes
to a tech school in Rocky Point. His class started at 3 p.m.

Joe Godinez, 52, a Tolleson contractor, sat in his car, trying to play cards.

Roy Wilson, 67, who was visiting from Des Moines, Iowa, and has a house in
Mesa, was going to his condo in Rocky Point. "I'm not at all happy, I'd
rather be down there having a cerveza," he said.