The Associated Press
HEBBRONVILLE, Texas- An immigrant was run over and killed by a Border Patrol agent on a South Texas ranch, the county sheriff said Thursday.
But the Border Patrol said the agent encountered someone who was already dead.
Erasmo Alarcon, the Jim Hogg County sheriff investigating the incident, said the immigrant was killed at about 12:30 a.m Wednesday on the Morris Ranch, a private property near the inland Border Patrol checkpoint at Hebbronville, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of the Mexican border in the Rio Grande Valley.
Border Patrol agents apparently ran over an immigrant who was hiding, he said.
“Apparently the illegal alien was laying in some tall grass and the agent didn’t see him and ran over him,” Alarcon said.
An official Border Patrol statement released late Thursday said that a Customs and Border Protection agent “discovered a deceased individual while tracking a group of 15 suspected illegal aliens near Hebbronville.”
“The Laredo sector Border Patrol is fully cooperating with the investigation.” Border Patrol spokesman Mike Herrera said.
Mexican deputy consul Javier Abud said the immigrant died at the scene and his approximately 15 companions left him there.
“We are missing very important witnesses for this case,” he said.
Abud said his consulate in Laredo was informed of the death Wednesday and was trying to get more information.
“There was a male who was downed by a vehicle by the Border Patrol,” he said. “We started immediately our inquiries before the Border Patrol. We are waiting for this answer.”
He said the immigrant did not have photo identification, but the consulate assumed he was Mexican.
“We appeal to relatives who know that somebody tried to go into the United States through this region to contact us,” he said.
Ranches in the area often get traffic from immigrants and drug smugglers trying to avoid the checkpoints.