BROWNSVILLE — A Border Patrol spokesman confirmed yesterday that one of its agents suffered a grazing wound to the back of his head from a bullet fired from Mexico sometime Tuesday.
Border Patrol Spokesman Marcelino A. Medina said the agent was medically evaluated for the non-life threatening injury and released.
“On Tuesday, December 26, 2017, a Border Patrol Agent assigned to the Riverine Unit sustained a non-life threatening injury from a small caliber weapon resulting from an assault originating from the Mexican Riverbank,” Medina said in an emailed statement.
“The agent
suffered a grazing wound to the back of his head as a result of the incident and has been
medically evaluated and released. The
incident is currently under investigation.”
Medina said he couldn’t specify what time the assault occurred or in what vicinity near Brownsville the incident happened. Border Patrol has not identified the agent who was injured.
Medina did say Border Patrol would provide updates as the investigation continues. FBI Spokeswoman Rosanne Hughes confirmed that the FBI also is involved in the investigation.
The injured agent was assigned to the Riverine Unit, Medina said. That unit patrols the Rio Grande on boats, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection “Frontline” magazine feature. According to that feature, the Rio Grande Valley Sector, along with the Del Rio and Laredo sectors, is where most riverine patrol activity in the southwest occurs.
The attack comes a little more than one month after Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez died and another agent, Stephen Garland, suffered major head injuries after responding to activity near a drainage ditch by Interstate 10, near Van Horn, in West Texas. How Martinez died and Garland was injured remains a mystery.
National Border Patrol Council spokesman Chris Cabrera has said Martinez and Garland were ambushed and attacked by unknown assailants, but Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carrillo told The Dallas Morning News that the men may have been hit by a truck driving down the interstate. Both the state of Texas and the FBI have offered financial rewards in the case.
Cabrera did not immediately respond to multiple phone calls Wednesday seeking comment about the Border Patrol agent injured Tuesday near Brownsville.
After the Van Horn incident, politicians from Texas Governor Greg Abbott to President Donald Trump made statements on social media alleging the agents were attacked. Those politicians, among others who spoke out during the last Border Patrol agent assault, remained quiet yesterday.
The last time a Border Patrol agent was shot in the Rio Grande Valley was a little more than one year ago, in November 2016. During that incident, the agent, along with a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper, were hit by stray gunfire originating from a gun battle in Mexico across the Rio Grande from Roma, where the two were patrolling, in Starr County.
