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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 13 June 2018
APNewsBreak: Border agent

shot, wounded on Arizona ranch

By ANITA SNOW who the rancher said wrote
PHOENIX (AP) — A U.S. the email, Lisa A. Reed, did
Border Patrol agent was not immediately respond
wounded in a shooting on to an email seeking confir-
an Arizona ranch near the mation of the details Chil-
U.S.-Mexico border before ton provided. Border Patrol
dawn Tuesday in a remote spokesman Chris Sullivan
area known for drug and declined to comment.
migrant smuggling, the Arivaca is southwest of Tuc-
agency and the cattleman son and about 10 miles (16
who owns the property kilometers) from the border.
said. About 200 trails meander
The agent was taken to a over Chilton's ranch and
hospital after the 4:30 a.m. he said the area where In this Sunday, April 2, 2017 file photo, rancher Jim Chilton poses
shooting near the commu- the shooting happened is for a photo on his ranch in Arivaca, about 80 miles southwest of
nity of Arivaca and several along the most traveled Tucson, Ariz.
people were detained, a trail. One 14- mile (22-kilo- Associated Press
Border Patrol Statement meter) side of his ranch is
said, providing no informa- separated from Mexico by at agents on the U.S. side, Arizona. The agent inside
tion on the agent's injuries a four-strand wire fence. or would-be smugglers fir- was not hurt.
or the circumstances of the "We have drug runners ing at agents and missing In December, 2010, agent
shooting. coming through our ranch as the smugglers try to get Brian A. Terry was shot and
Jim Chilton, a fifth-gener- and this has become a away from the agents. killed near Rio Rico, Ari-
ation Arizona cattleman very dangerous situation," Agents with the Tucson Sec- zona, while trying to arrest
who runs the 50,000-acre Chilton said. tor Border Patrol arrested a a group of armed people
(20,230-hectare) ranch, U.S. Customs and Border 21-year-old U.S. citizen near who had been preying on
told The Associated Press Protection, which oversees Amado, Arizona last Christ- migrants. Agent Robert Ro-
in an interview that the Bor- the Border Patrol, reports mas eve after he fired at sas was shot and killed in
der Patrol sent him an email hundreds of assaults on its them during a high speed an ambush on patrol along
saying the agent was alone law enforcement person- chase that ended when he the Mexico border near
when he was wounded on nel across the United State lost control of the vehicle Campo, California in July
the ranch and was struck in each year, but they rarely and rolled over. He was 2009, and Agent Alexan-
the leg and the hand. involve agents getting hit transporting two migrants der S. Kirpnick was shot and
Several bullets also struck by bullets. in the U.S. without authori- killed as he and his partner
the agent's protective vest, During the U.S. fiscal year zation. Two teen boys were tried to arrest a group of
which probably saved his that ended Sept. 30, 2017, arrested last year in the drug smugglers just north of
life, Chilton said. there were 786 assaults on shooting of a Border Patrol the Mexican border in Ari-
"Without it, he probably the Border Patrol agents vehicle south of Sierra Vista, zona in June 1998.q
would not be with us to- nationwide and 93 in the
day," said the rancher, who Tucson Sector that includes
is a well-known Arizona Arivaca area, the agency
backer of President Donald has said.
Trump's efforts to secure Some cases involved peo-
the U.S.-Mexico border. ple on the Mexican side of
The Border Patrol official the border throwing rocks