Free Republic

PHOENIX (AP) — The U.S. Border Patrol agent killed last week in a shooting in southern Arizona apparently opened fire on two fellow agents thinking they were armed smugglers and was killed when they returned fire, the head of the Border Patrol agents' union said Sunday. The two sets of agents approached an area where a sensor had been activated early Tuesday from different directions early Tuesday and encountered each other in an area of heavy brush, National Border Patrol Council president George McCubbin said. Agent Nicholas Ivie apparently opened fire first and wounded one of the other agents but...

Friendly fire likely was to blame in a shooting near the Arizona-Mexico line that killed one federal agent and wounded another, the FBI said, noting the investigation was still ongoing in the case that reignited the political debate over border security. "There are strong preliminary indications that the death of United States Border Patrol Agent Nicholas J. Ivie and the injury to a second agent was the result of an accidental shooting incident involving only the agents," FBI Special Agent in Charge James L. Turgal Jr. said in a statement Friday.

This week's fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and the wounding of another in Arizona was likely the result of friendly fire, the FBI said late Friday. "While it is important to emphasize that the FBI's investigation is actively continuing, there are strong preliminary indications that the death of United States Border Patrol Agent Nicholas J. Ivie, 30, and the injury to a second agent was the result of an accidental shooting incident involving only the agents," James Turgal, special agent in charge of the FBI's Phoenix division, said in a statement. "At the appropriate time further information...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Authorities are investigating whether a Border Patrol agent shot dead in Arizona near the Mexican border may have been killed by friendly fire, two U.S. government sources said on Friday. The sources, government officials familiar with the matter, declined to elaborate. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman declined to comment.

Investigators are looking into whether friendly fire caused the death of Border Patrol agent Nick Ivie or the wounding of his colleague early Tuesday morning. Acting Cochise County Sheriff Rod Rothrock said it remains possible that either one was shot by another agent, though the investigation is still in its early stages. "Gunfight situations are highly fluid and dramatic, and this was out there in the middle of the night," Rothrock said. "People are moving and running, and I can't say it didn't happen." If it was friendly fire, that conclusion will be reached later in the investigation, he said....