NOGALES, Ariz. — A shootout between border patrol agents and bandits in the rugged canyons near Mexico's border left one officer dead and a suspect injured, a union official said Wednesday, the latest outburst of violence along the busiest smuggling corridor into the U.S.
The killing in southeastern Arizona was a stark reminder of the complicated nature of border security: It was Brian A. Terry's job to turn back illegal border crossers, but he was apparently killed by bandits who prey on those same migrants.
"This is a sign that the politicians and bureaucrats are overly optimistic in their assessment that the borders are more secure now than at any point in our history," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 17,000 agents.
Terry, 40, was part of a team of officers whose job was to drop into hotspots, and quell the violence.
The shooting took place about 13 miles north of the border, near Nogales late Tuesday night, at the bottom of a flat canyon with scattered oak trees and knee-high grass. Rugged trails through mountains make the spot difficult to reach.
Terry was waiting with three other agents when a gun battle with bandits began, Bonner said.
Terry and the other agents came across a group of five people. There was no sign that they were hauling drugs, but two were carrying rifles, said Border Patrol Agent Brandon Judd, president of the local agents' union. Judd said he did not know what prompted the firefight.
No other agents were injured, but one of the suspects was wounded. Bonner said the wounded suspect was from Mexico, but the country of origin of the remaining suspects hasn't been publicly released.
Bonner and Judd said their accounts were based on information they got from agents in the field.
The Border Patrol and the FBI have refused to confirm the details of Bonner's account, beyond saying that authorities have four suspects in custody and are searching for a fifth. At a Border Patrol news conference on Wednesday, officials released few details.
Bandits have operated at the border for decades, robbing and sexually assaulting illegal immigrants crossing into the country.
The bandits stake out heavily traveled smuggling paths used by illegal immigrants and sneak up on them, pointing guns, forcing border-crossers to the ground and stealing all their valuables. Bandits, however, avoid run-ins with drug smugglers.
"You won't have much of a life expectancy if you play around with the cartels," Bonner said.
Terry, a former Marine and Michigan police officer, was part of an elite squad similar to a police SWAT team that was sent to the remote areas north of Nogales known for border banditry, drug smuggling and violence.
"His dream all his life was to be a federal agent," Terry's sister, Michelle Terry-Balogh, 42, told The Associated Press from Flat Rock, Mich., just outside Detroit. "It was always 'I want to be a cop, I want to get the bad guys.'"
After he left the Marine Corps, Terry got a degree in criminal justice and then worked as a police officer in Ecorse and Lincoln Park, both in Michigan, she said. Terry joined the Border Patrol three years ago, and Terry-Balogh said he just loved it.
"It was his life," she said. "He said it was very dangerous but he loved what he did and wanted to make a difference."
She said Terry had focused all his life on his career, but had recently met someone special in Michigan and was hoping to have children someday. He also had planned to fly out Friday for a 10-day visit with his family in Michigan.
The last time an agent was killed in the line of duty was in September. Agent Michael Gallagher died in a wreck during a patrol in Arizona.
"It is a stark reminder of the very real dangers our men and women on the front lines confront every day as they protect our communities and the American people," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. She said last October that the border was more secure than ever before.
Napolitano plans to be in Arizona on Thursday and Friday to meet with Border Patrol agents in Nogales and Tucson.
The shooting occurred in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, the busiest gateway for illegal immigrants into the United States. Half of the marijuana seizures along the 1,969-mile southern border are made in the sector, which covers 262 miles of the boundary.
As the busiest illegal entry point for drugs and immigrants into the U.S., Arizona has become the backdrop of the heated immigration debate.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who has criticized the federal government's efforts to secure the border and signed Arizona's illegal-immigration law this year, said the killing reminded people of "the threats facing all who serve in protecting our state and nation."
EmperorSmith posted at 5:02 pm on Wed, Dec 15, 2010.
Remind me again why is not safe to go near the border.
Mike1200 posted at 9:29 am on Thu, Dec 16, 2010.
Oh great. I just heard crappy nappy (Janet Napolitano) is coming back to Arizona again. I'm sure everybody in the state already feels safer just knowing she's addressing the situation. What is she going to do? Probably, tell us again the border is as safe as it's ever been.
Mike1200 posted at 9:51 am on Thu, Dec 16, 2010.
Sorry, I meant safer than it's ever been.
EmperorSmith posted at 2:16 pm on Thu, Dec 16, 2010.
Safe versus safer, Rich your the English degree holder which is more correct?
rrjenn posted at 8:22 am on Fri, Dec 17, 2010.
Where are all the open border scum like Rich, Forky and Dale to tell us all how he probably faked his own death to make it look more dangerous on the border like the agent that was grazed a while back?
Mike1200 posted at 11:43 am on Fri, Dec 17, 2010.
I'd like to know when the open border crowd is going to get their heads out of their butts and wake up? Illegal’s have shot and killed another American citizen. The violence is slowly escalating and nothing serious is being done. The border needs to be sealed and this situation needs to be stopped NOW. Luckily, for the citizens of arizona crappy nappy (Janet N) is on it and she’ll have a solution next week about what the next step should be.
rrjenn posted at 12:20 pm on Fri, Dec 17, 2010.
Glenn Spencer -- December 17
It has now been confirmed that Rick Oltman's report that U.S. Border Patrol Brian Terry agent who was murdered three days ago, was given "bean-bag rounds" for his weapon is true.
The American Patrol Report has just learned that the order came from Tucson Sector Chief Manjarez, before he was removed from the job. According to a well-informed former agent, Terry may have been able to save his life had he been issued real ammunition.
It is an outrage that our government would have such little regard for our border patrol that they would put their lives at risk because of Political Correctness.
It is also an outrage that the Senate of the United States would even consider giving amnesty to one illegal alien so long as our government allows millions to flood across our border.
We must stop the Dream act!
rrjenn posted at 12:26 pm on Fri, Dec 17, 2010.
The ACLU forces ICE to give illegal aliens Cadillac Health Care and our Border Agents get rubber bullets and die.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has agreed to begin providing medical care that goes well beyond emergency treatment, as a result of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. The suit alleged that ICE was not treating “immigration detainees with constitutionally adequate levels of medical and mental health care.”
Among the many services which ICE will now provide illegal aliens in their custody are heart surgeries, cancer biopsies, treatment for diabetes, dental care, and treatment for mental depression.
On Thursday, Elizabeth Alexander, former Director of the ACLU National Prison Project and lead attorney in the suit said: "For the first time, ICE has committed to providing all necessary health care to immigration detainees beyond just emergency care. For too long, ICE's own policies allowed it to provide detainees with nothing beyond a narrow definition of emergency. This settlement is recognition that it is unconstitutional not to provide people in government custody with all necessary health care."
The legal action was filed in June 2007 by the ACLU and the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties and stated that detainees at the San Diego Correctional Facility were often subjected to long waits for medical treatment and denied medication for chronic illnesses.
The lawsuit cited several cases in which detainees with bipolar disorders and depression went untreated, as well as illegal aliens who never received care for high cholesterol and broken teeth.
No word yet on the estimated cost of this new policy to the taxpayers.
EmperorSmith posted at 12:39 pm on Fri, Dec 17, 2010.
I am a patriot and i say we take back are southern border, feds won't do it we should.
rrjenn posted at 2:03 pm on Fri, Dec 17, 2010.
I'm a patriot and I say we start shooting back with real bullets.
wdgnas posted at 7:13 am on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
did i miss something in the article? i do not see where it states the officer was shot by illegal immigrants.
It was Brian A. Terry's job to turn back illegal border crossers, but he was apparently killed by bandits who prey on those same migrants. that being it is a tragedy.
Mike1200 posted at 11:20 am on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
wsgnas says
did I miss something in the article? i do not see where it states the officer was shot by illegal immigrants.
Yeah right, I'm sure they were probably just some poor southern arizona folks out looking to steal from illegal's as they walk across the desert. Sorry, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they are illegal too. Plus I read other articles stating the shooting was done by "illegal alien bandits".
rrjenn posted at 11:34 am on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
No, he was not shot by illegal immigrants. He was shot by Mexicans preying on illegal immigrants. So he was shot and killed as a direct result of uncontrolled illegal immigration which is in turn a result of our federal governments unwillingness to adequately control illegal immigration. It could then be said that our federal government murdered the agent. That is the true tragedy.
hillstreet posted at 1:53 pm on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
As predictable as the morning sun, the amount of misinformation and foaming at the mouth from this agent's death is sad.
NO POLICE OFFICER is ever sent out into the field armed with JUST less lethal. I carry a taser at my side, that does not mean I can't still shoot you with my real gun. Less lethal was issued to BP in ADDITION to their leathl weaponry, not instead of.
RRjen- the only thing u ever said I agreed with is that the border is out of control and must be sealed and secured. All the anti-mexican hoopla that 1070 brought about has nothing to do with border security. Taco vendors and gardeners are not the enemy; an open border is. Of course, these two issues are the same as far as racists are concerned.
EmperorSmith posted at 4:00 pm on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
hillstreet blues.
EmperorSmith posted at 4:01 pm on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
show me a taco vendor in veco valley?
rrjenn posted at 6:30 pm on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
hillstreet, you and those like you are the reason that agent was murdered. The feds wont take the border problems seriously until we the people force them to. You Hill, are amongst those who wont lend a hand to defend our great nation and should be forced to accept responsibility for the carnage that has taken place in Mexico and here in America. Instead, you betch and moan about how unfair it is to protect America from this invasion. Arizona wouldn't be having the most burden of this invasion if we had completed the fence that seems to be protecting areas where it was built and instead tends to funnel drug and human smuggling into this area left unprotected. You always have to go back to the only argument you people have that it is all really some kind of racist plot to take over America for White Supremacy. Doesn't get any lamer than that. I liked you better when all you said was that it's impossible to send all the illegal aliens back to their home of origin or secure the border. Two things most people with half a brain know to be wrong. Oh, would you like me to show you the math again? lol
EmperorSmith posted at 7:08 pm on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
the border will never be seal
hillstreet posted at 8:09 pm on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
rrjen- either stop smoking that stuff, or increase the dosage because you attribute statements to me I never made. Never said anything about sending anyone back or not securing the border. And as a 25 year cop I have done a heck of a lot more to fight crimes than u ever did sitting in front of your computer writing stupid comments. I place my behind on the line everyday to make this state safer....what do u do?
Read carefully and remember what I said, and what I didn't say:
1. chasing taco vendors and hotel maids is a waste of police resources and will not do a thing to make us safer. Thus 1070 is a waste of time (only good to empower racists)
2. the border must be made secure and we can do it if the resources are devoted to it.
3. a legal path to residence must be established 'cause none of you has a solution to 12 million illegals already here.
EmperorSmith posted at 8:40 pm on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
Show me a secured border and we can talk
hillstreet posted at 10:22 pm on Sat, Dec 18, 2010.
Can u read English? I said "the border must be made secure," future sense.
EmperorSmith posted at 12:02 pm on Sun, Dec 19, 2010.
i responded in a future past tense, go to college instead of cop school.
rrjenn posted at 10:06 pm on Sun, Dec 19, 2010.
You said you weren't a cop a while back so what is it?
1. We don't need to chase anyone. All we do is make the laws denying illegals any services including taco vending licensing and working at hotels. Actually, we have the laws but they aren't enforced because of people like you. Just putting some teeth into enforcement and they all go home on their own. You know this Hill, but you keep trying to make us believe there's no way to kick them all back to where they came from.
2. The borders can easily be secure if we want them to be, but people like you wont let us.
3. The solution is to dry up all the incentives and they repatriate themselves. After they go home I'm more than willing to consider their plea if they ask me nicely. As of 2006, the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than all other countries in the world combined. Since the liberalization of immigration policy in 1965, the number of first- generation immigrants living in the United States has quadrupled, from 9.6 million in 1970 to about 38 million in 2007. We legally allow a great many people from Mexico as it is so don't even ask me for more. The figures show joblessness amongst US citizens to be growing at the same time illegal alien job growth is rising. They are coming here and taking our jobs for less money and worse conditions and this needs to stop. But you know all this Hill, so why do you keep singing the same sorry tune? We need to stop business from getting away with hiring these people so Americans that spend their money here can have them. If you want to call this racism then by all means just keep singing the sorry song that has worked so well for your people for so long now.
rrjenn posted at 10:12 pm on Sun, Dec 19, 2010.
Path to residency = go home and apply for it like all the other honest people who wish to come to the promise land. Stop thinking you can break our laws and still get the benefits of citizenship. We Americans value our citizenship, and you defile citizenship by lying, stealing and cheating your way to America. GO HOME!
Pretty soon we will have the laws and teeth needed to solve this problem. Stay and see it come down or go home now and apply before the rush. Either way you will not be given what you do not deserve.
Masterrogue666 posted at 10:20 pm on Sun, Dec 19, 2010.
Where's forkedlift now? Why doesn't he say this incident was a "self inflicted wound" gone bad?
Well forkedlift? It sure sounds like something you'd spew....
Masterrogue666 posted at 10:22 pm on Sun, Dec 19, 2010.
Gee Janet. I guess the border isn't as "SECURE" as you and King Obama have be claiming. Let's see YOU patrol the area for a week (without your guards). Maybe then you'll stop spewing your lies.....
Masterrogue666 posted at 10:26 pm on Sun, Dec 19, 2010.
I say Mexico is a pirate state, controlled by drug dealers. Let's go to war with them again, but this time, DON'T give anything back!!!!
EmperorSmith posted at 12:31 pm on Mon, Dec 20, 2010.
i think the baja would be a nice adition
rrjenn posted at 9:05 am on Tue, Dec 21, 2010.
Napy says, “What I say to the American people is that… thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 days a year to keep the American people safe.”
364 days a year? This whole administration is made up of buffoons. Like when the obamanation said there are 57 states.
azrepublican posted at 7:17 pm on Thu, Dec 23, 2010.
It has been confirmed by yet another source that agent Brian Terry and one other agent were armed with shotguns with non-lethal bean bag rounds.
One agent fired bean bag rounds and when the outlaws opened up with real bullets, the agent then drew his hand gun to return fire, indicating that he did not have the standard issue M-4 rifle in addition to the non-lethal weaponry.
The FBI and other agencies are still investigating. And while I will never cast aspersions on the line agents and officers of any law enforcement agency, the bosses are another matter. CYA, politics, political correctness are all factors that we have seen in the past that just makes some of us automatically assume that a cover-up, to some extent, at some level, will ensue.
http://www.examiner.com/immigration-in-san-francisco/bean-bags-for-janet-napolitano
azrepublican posted at 11:28 am on Fri, Dec 24, 2010.
Agents in Nogales are talking, off the record, about what really happened in Peck Canyon the night of the firefight between armed Mexican cartel members and the BORTAC team. The brass in Nogales, Tucson, and DC is very worried about the facts getting out to the public and have issued a gag order on all agents. They are threatening agents that they will be fired if they are caught talking about the facts of Terry's murder.
A lot of tips are coming in from agents now through back-channels. They want the truth about Terry's murder to be known.
Bottom line: A series of bad BP/DHS procedures, policies, and protocol, all designed to protect Mexican criminals inside the U.S., most likely resulted in the needless death of Agent Brian Terry on the night of Dec. 14, 2010.
Tip from Thursday night (12/23) from trusted senior source inside USBP. We need to get this confirmed ASAP! Congress and the media, where are you??
I can't relate details for the safety of some agents and supervisors. However the word is that when Terry and the illegal alien bandit were both wounded, the BORSTAR helo came down on the scene and they opted to airlift the alien first to the hospital. Terry was loaded onto a vehicle and driven out to where another helo was parked, thereby the alien was given first priority for medical
service. At this point we can't confirm this but it sounds like it is coming from people who know.
I am hoping Brian Terry did not die in vain. We need to keep the heat on through the holidays and until the new Congress is installed and then push with all our might for hearings.
Remember, the twice deported Mexican National who was wounded is a confirmed drug cartel member who was also convicted of assaulting a Phoenix police officer several years ago. He was wounded in the foot. Agent Terry reportedly waited many minutes before being flown out. I have heard it was up to a half hour before they could fly him out. He reportedly died en route to the hospital.
928 to 805 posted at 5:14 pm on Fri, Dec 24, 2010.
Legalize Marijuana and Penalize Employers who use illegal immigrant labor. Two very simple solutions to solving our little problem.
hillstreet posted at 11:52 pm on Fri, Dec 24, 2010.
azrepublican- Are u mad? No law enforcement officer would choose to evacuate the suspect before the officer in a shootout. Are u a fed? Do u have any special insight, besides rumors and opinions, of this incident? I am a cop and I assure you -I- do not have any scoop on this shootout and will not receive any information until this investigation is over.
Stick to the facts.
azrepublican posted at 6:24 pm on Sat, Dec 25, 2010.
Hill,
I've seen you state that you only worked in law enforcement but wasn't a cop. I've seen you state you are a retired cop, and now you state you are an active cop? How would just being a cop someplace give you any more insight than anyone else? This particular error on the part of higher up officials in not properly allowing border agents to be fully armed is something that is being squelched. It's not being reported by mainstream news because it is so inflammatory that most people will be horrified and demand action. Action is obviously not what those in power seem to want, or have you not been paying attention? Whoever I am is nothing I want to divulge as telling this story would definitely be not allowed at any level of law enforcement. In any case, this just shows once again that this administration as was the previous one is not going to do what it takes to secure an out of control border, so we need to take state action. It's painfully obvious and way overdue. Yet so many fight us at every turn as if we were the villains and the illegals were just innocents we owe a living to. It boggles the mind at how they mollycoddle these people who put us in danger anywhere withing a hundred miles of this border. You people need to wake up pretty soon before we end up having a real war.
azrepublican posted at 6:41 pm on Sat, Dec 25, 2010.
Another aspect of this story that is not being reported is that the site of the shooting, Peck Canyon, is inside the area Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., has proposed to designate as the Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness reserve. If Grijalva's bill is enacted into law, what is now a well-established drug smuggling corridor will become a drug-smuggling superhighway, because the Border Patrol will be prohibited from patrolling the region. Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah has proposed legislation that will remove the restrictions on Border Patrol jurisdiction on such public lands within 50 miles of the border. How such a bozo ever got elected is beyond me, but after Grijalva called for a boycott and was reelected is a crime against the good people of Arizona.
hillstreet posted at 10:04 pm on Mon, Dec 27, 2010.
I don't know what u all are smoking, maybe hitting the medical MJ a little too soon. I have always stated I am a 25+ year ACTIVE DUTY cop and nothing else. And Carl Sagan once said extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. You have nothing to back up your claim that law enforcement officers actually left a brother officer to die just to treat and evacuate an illegal.
That's bunk, we would never do that, and I am calling you on it.
Provide the evidence that agents prioritized medically treating the suspect over the officer and I'll shut up. Otherwise, stop your BS about this shooting, you are clueless.
azrepublican posted at 9:44 am on Tue, Dec 28, 2010.
I doesn't surprise me that they gave preferential treatment to the Mexican that was wounded. Remember when they put two agents in prison for wounding a drug smuggling Mexican a few years back? They try real hard not to offend the Mexican government by treating Mexican criminals as if they were not criminals. Someone connected with law enforcement would understand that, but I don't believe you have a connection Hill. I know a retired border agent very well, and he's told me some shocking stories about how our own government hamstrings their border agents. He also knows some of these agents that have first hand knowledge about this current outrageous case of disregard for these agents safety and performance in securing the border. It reminds me of my experience in Vietnam. Our government wouldn't let us win that war either. It surprises me that anyone would doubt this story considering our governments stand on illegal immigration from Mexico. No Hill, I can't prove these claims at this time and you know that. Whether or not the truth ever comes out is iffy at best. Ask yourself this, where is the information about the Mexicans involved in this shooting? Why is the government so hush hush about them? Were they Mexican army soldiers working for the cartels as many have suggested to me? A Mexican army major working for a drug cartel is wounded in a firefight where an American border agent is killed would certainly be something they might want to cover up, and they would most certainly not want him to die. It is a known fact that border agents are issued shotguns with bean bag rounds so as to not kill these criminals. It is a known fact that these agents had shotguns with bean bag rounds. They had no assault weapons, and besides the bean bag guns they only had their pistols to defend themselves against fully automatic ak-47 assault weapons.
http://www.americanpatrol.com/
It has now been confirmed that Rick Oltman's report that U.S. Border Patrol Brian Terry agent who was murdered three days ago, was given "bean-bag rounds" for his weapon is true.
The American Patrol Report has just learned that the order came from Tucson Sector Chief Manjarez, before he was removed from the job. According to a well-informed former agent, Terry may have been able to save his life had he been issued real ammunition.
It is an outrage that our government would have such little regard for our border patrol that they would put their lives at risk because of Political Correctness.
It is also an outrage that the Senate of the United States would even consider giving amnesty to one illegal alien so long as our government allows millions to flood across our border.
rrjenn posted at 4:30 pm on Thu, Jan 13, 2011.
Still the government is not divulging the names of the arrested aliens who murdered this border agent? Hey hill, you know what's going on? You should know since you are a pretend cop. Could it be that Major Torres of the Mexican Army was involved and they just don't want to allow the public to know that they allowed a US Border Agent to die so that they could treat the major first?