Border agent injured in West Texas incident out of hospital
A Border Patrol agent injured in an incident that left a fellow agent dead was discharged Wednesday from an El Paso hospital.
The agent was discharged Wednesday from the University Medical Center in El Paso, said Doug Mosier, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in El Paso. He declined to identify the agent and referred to the FBI all questions about the status of the investigation into Saturday night’s incident near Van Horn that left agent Rogelio Martinez dead.
A message left with an FBI spokeswoman Wednesday wasn’t returned.
Speculation about the incident has run rampant with several politicians calling it an attack and promoting the building of wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie Jr. in the FBI’s El Paso office had said Tuesday that investigators were treating the incident as a “potential assault,” but they could not rule out other scenarios.
Representatives from the border patrol’s union were also insistent from the accounts of other agents who responded to the scene that the incident was an attack. Chris Cabrera, a spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council, told The Associated Press that agents responding to the scene called it “grisly.”
However, a U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press on Monday that the agents may have fallen, and that the surviving agent had no memory of his duty-shift. The official spoke on condition of anonymity and is not authorized to speak publicly.
Border Patrol officials hoped to have answers for Martinez’s family as they planned his visitation and funeral, set for Friday and Saturday in El Paso.
