By Paul J. Weber
Associated Press
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Hundreds of mourners crammed into an event center Tuesday for the funeral of a federal agent killed in northern Mexico during what U.S. officials say was a roadside ambush carried out by drug cartel gunmen.
Law enforcement and border security personnel in uniform were among those solemnly gathered to honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata who was run off the road and gunned down in San Luis Potosi state Feb. 15. Another agent in the car, Victor Avila, was shot twice in the leg but survived the attack.
Mourners filled the Brownsville Events Center on Tuesday, filling all the seats, lining the walls two deep, standing in aisles and even spilling outside. An honor guard stood beside Zapata’s flag-draped casket, which was flanked by another American flag and a Homeland Security flag.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder were expected to speak at the ceremony in Brownsville, Zapata’s hometown, in the southern tip of Texas.
Bishop Daniel Flores was the first to speak, using imagery to describe the “evil” Zapata, 32,had been fighting.
“He knew that if the good do not fight for what is good the enemy is aggressive and will take our children,” Flores said.
Mourners took Holy Communion and sang “Amazing Grace” before Napolitano got up to speak.
Zapata and Avila were attacked when a group of Zeta drug cartel members in two vehicles forced Zapata’s sport utility vehicle off a highway, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul has said.
San Luis Potosi borders two northern Mexican states where the Zetas and the rival Gulf Cartel have waged bloody battles over territory. Zapata and Avila were temporarily detailed to the ICE attache office in Mexico City and were driving from the northern city of Monterrey to the Mexican capital at the time of the attack.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press