Immigration officials have confirmed the border agent who died Sunday morning after being attacked while on duty with his partner was killed with rocks.
Agent Rogelio Martinez, 36, died Sunday at a local area hospital after he and his partner were assaulted responding to “activity” at their Texas sector of the Southwest U.S. border.
UPDATE: Officials with the National Border Patrol Council tell @KTSMtv that undocumented immigrants used rocks to kill a Border Patrol agent from El Paso. https://t.co/Hl1WP7n9Yc
— Patrick Hayes (@KTSMPatrick) November 20, 2017
“What we know is that Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez appears to have been ambushed by a group of illegal aliens whom he was tracking. Our agents’ reports from the ground say that he was struck in the head multiple times with a rock or rocks,” National Border Patrol Council President and Border Patrol Agent Brandon Judd reportedly told Breitbart Texas.
“The other agent arrived on scene a short time later and was also ambushed and struck in the head with what is believed to have been a rock or rocks,” he reportedly added.
Martinez’s partner remains in the hospital in critical condition.
While fatalities resulting from assaults against agents on the border are fairly rare, illegal aliens – particularly drug smugglers – using rocks to assault border agents are all too common. Last December, agents reported multiple instances of being assailed with rocks the size of bricks while on duty. Earlier this year, agents reported rocks being thrown at their vehicles from across the border.
Reported assaults against border agents have hit a record high this year at more than 700 attacks, up nearly 50 percent over last year.
(Cover Photo: Facebook)