U.S. Border Patrol Agent Shot Dead in Campo

A U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Robert Rosas, was brutally gunned down whilst tracking illegals in a remote spot near Campo.

This story was initially reported on 23rd July 2009, but after the autopsy far more information is available:

The Border Patrol agent killed last month in Campo was shot eight times, including at least twice in the back, according to an autopsy released Tuesday by the Medical Examiner's Office.

Agent Robert Rosas, 30, was shot four times in the head, three times in the torso and once in the neck, the autopsy report stated.

Rosas was tracking three suspected illegal immigrants in remote and rocky terrain about 9:15 p.m. July 23 near the U.S.-Mexico border when he got out of his vehicle to investigate and left the ignition running, according to the autopsy's summary of the events of that night.

Shortly after Rosas got out of his vehicle, a fellow agent heard six to eight gunshots fired. The agent discovered a flashlight about 10 yards from the vehicle and Rosas' body a few more yards away.

According to the report, the fellow agent determined immediately that Rosas was dead. Several spent casings found in the area were collected by the FBI.

A toxicology exam concluded that Rosas was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Mexican authorities detained five people after Rosas' slaying. One of them, Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, was directly linked to the shooting by a fellow smuggling suspect.

Parra is being held while Mexican prosecutors seek to file murder, smuggling, firearms and organized-crime charges. The FBI hasn't announced any arrests.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is offering a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the fatal shooting.

The reward is in addition to the FBI's $100,000 reward, as well as an additional $10,000 reward offered for information leading to the recovery of Rosas' service weapon.

Some more information on the perpetrators:

Mexican federal law enforcement authorities said last night that a man who was detained outside Tecate has been identified as the gunman in the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas.

The suspect, Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, 36, is in federal custody, Commissioner Elias Alvarez Hernandez, head of federal police forces in Baja California, said at a news conference in Tijuana.

Tecate municipal police on Friday arrested Parra Valenzuela in the vicinity of the shooting five hours afterward. They said that he had a 9 mm pistol tucked in his clothing.

The man who named Parra Valenzuela as the shooter was identified as Jose Eugenio Quintero Ruiz, one of four human-smuggling suspects who were detained in the same Tecate area by Mexican federal police, along with 21 migrants.

Alvarez said that Quintero was part of a smuggling group wanted by U.S. authorities in two recent homicides and a rape.

It's a real shame that it takes a crime like this before U.S. law enforcement agencies start taking border security seriously - particularly when one takes into account that Mexico is a corrupt, violent Third World country.

As the article found space to tuck in, the man arrested for this was already wanted for two murders and a rape on American soil - and yet still proponents of a stronger border with Mexico are ridiculed, smeared and ignored.