Two agents from the U.S. Border Patrol were shot on Tuesday morning. One agent was killed in a south Arizona area known to be a corridor for drug smuggling, said authorities.
The agents’ identities have not been released, but the incident took place near Naco, Arizona at the Brian Terry Patrol Station. That station is located directly south of the city of Tucson.
The station received its name from another agent who had been killed while on duty in December of 2010. Authorities consider the station in a very remote area of Arizona and sources have said the shooting took place at approximately 1:50 am, close to 8 miles from the Mexico-U.S. border.
The agent injured had been airlifted to a nearby hospital, but he did not have life threatening injuries. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is leading the search for the suspect with the Sheriff’s Office of Cochise County. The last border patrol agent killed in the line of duty was Brian Terry in 2010.
After the shooting, two guns had been found near the scene by law enforcement officials. Those two guns had been purchased by members of a ring of gun-smugglers that the Fast and Furious investigation had been monitoring.
U.S. government officials have been knocked by critics for allowing their informants to walk away from gun shops in the area of Phoenix instead of arresting the suspects immediately.
