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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Friendly fire killed agent

Initial report shows border guards in Arizona fired at each other

By: Jacques Billeaud and Pete Yost

Posted: 10/6/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Nicholas Ivie (CP)

PHOENIX -- A preliminary investigation has found friendly fire likely was to blame in a shooting that killed one federal agent and wounded another along the Arizona-Mexico border, the FBI said Friday, shaking up the probe into an incident that reignited the political debate over border security.

"There are strong preliminary indications that the death of United States Border Patrol Agent Nicholas J. Ivie and the injury to a second agent was the result of an accidental shooting incident involving only the agents," FBI Special Agent in Charge James L. Turgal Jr. said in a statement.

Turgal didn't elaborate but said the FBI is using "all necessary investigative, forensic and analytical resources in the course of this investigation" into the Tuesday incident eight kilometres north of the border near Bisbee.

Ivie was shot and killed after he and two other agents responded to an alarm triggered by a sensor aimed at detecting smugglers and others entering the U.S. illegally.

One of the other agents was shot in the ankle and buttocks, but was released from the hospital after surgery. The third agent was uninjured.

The Cochise County Sheriff's Office, which is assisting the FBI in the probe, said federal investigators used ballistic testing to determine the shootings were likely the result of friendly fire among the agents.

Jeffrey D. Self, commander of Customs and Border Protection's Joint Field Command-Arizona said investigators were making progress but noted despite initial findings the shootings appear accidental, it didn't diminish the fact Ivie "gave the ultimate sacrifice and died serving his country."

"The fact is the work of the border patrol is dangerous," Self said during a news conference Friday in Tucson.

While federal authorities declined to offer details of the shooting, George McCubbin, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the three agents split up, noting all fired their weapons.

"Coming in from different angles, that is more than likely how it ended up happening," McCubbin told The Arizona Republic.

A Mexican law-enforcement official said Thursday federal police had arrested two men who may have been connected to the shootings. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was unclear if there was strong evidence linking the men to the case.

It was unclear Friday whether the two remained in custody or were still considered part of the probe.

After a meeting of border governors Friday in Albuquerque, N.M., Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer stood by the criticism she levelled earlier this week in response to the shootings in which she said a political stalemate and the federal government's failures have left the border unsecured and border patrol agents in harm's way. "It's the federal government's responsibility to secure our border, and they need to do that, and then we can deal with all the other issues that have come about because our border hasn't been secured," said Brewer, who plans to attend Ivie's funeral Monday in Sierra Vista.

The border patrol couldn't comment on the frequency of friendly fire shootings at the agency, but such incidents appeared to be extremely rare, if they've ever occurred at all.

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 6, 2012 A26

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