Border agent in Texas kills smuggler

PHOENIX — A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a Mexican smuggler illegally crossing into the United States after the man tried to attack the officer with a rock, authorities said Thursday.

A Border Patrol spokesman said the agent shot the man while trying to take him into custody late Wednesday, one mile east of the Bridge of the Americas port of entry in El Paso.

“The individual attempted to assault the agent with a rock. He also had a pair of bolt cutters in his other hand,” Ramiro Cordero, a supervisory agent, said. “This caused the agent to discharge his firearm, striking the subject on several occasions.”

Cordero said two other border crossers then drag- ged the wounded man back across the Rio Grande, where he died.

The agent was assigned to administrative duties pending an investigation by the FBI and the El Paso Police Department, Cordero said.

Mexican police said the unidentified dead man was a known smuggler.

The incident follows sever- al shootings of border crossers that have strained relations between the United States and Mexico.

This week an Arizona judge ruled that a Border Patrol agent must stand trial for murder for shooting a Mexican who illegally crossed the border.

Last year, two Border Patrol agents were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison in Texas for shooting an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks.

They became a cause celebre among some conservatives and anti-illegal immigration organizations.