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The 25-year-old Border Patrol agent involved in a McAllen police shooting has died.
In a Monday update, police in McAllen said he died at the hospital on Sunday while noting that an autopsy has been ordered.
Authorities previously identified him as Ronaldo Alvarado, of Brownsville, who they described as “being extremely aggressive” and armed at approximately 3:38 a.m. Sunday.
On Monday afternoon, Border Patrol confirmed that Alvarado was off-duty at the time. He was assigned to the Rio Grande City station.
“Sadly, the incident resulted in their death,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement.
“Our prayers go out to the agent’s family, friends, and the McAllen Police Department,” the statement read.
Police located Alvarado driving a maroon Dodge Charger south in the 1700 block of North 23rd Street. He had been reported to police as being “highly intoxicated.”
In a Sunday news release, police said Alvarado was shooting at them from inside his vehicle after authorities pulled him over.
Authorities then reported seeing gunfire “flash from within the suspect vehicle and driver side door glass breakage from apparent (gunfire).”
When the Charger slowly headed southbound, an officer identified as Jimmy Gonzalez, “returned fire and discharged his weapon twice at the suspect from the rear of his stopped police unit.”
Gonzalez has worked with the department for two-and-a-half years.
“The Responding Officer appeared to have struck the rear windshield frame of the suspect vehicle,” the release stated.
The vehicle then crashed into a fence about four blocks from where police initially tried to pull him over, which is where officers found Alvarado “slumped over with an apparent wound to his head.”
“The Responding Officer[s] broke through the suspect vehicle glass to gain entry into the suspect vehicle to provide and summon emergency medical assistance for the suspect,” police further stated, adding that “the suspect’s weapon” was found beside him. “The suspect appeared to have suffered an entry and exit gunshot wound to the temple area of his forehead.”
