June 4, 2004
A U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot at 11 times near Sonoita during a string of smuggling-related incidents but escaped injury, authorities said.
On Wednesday morning, the unidentified agent was following a truck that had a felony alert on it from Bisbee police, who wanted to question the driver.
Before the agent could turn on emergency lights, the truck made a U-turn and headed toward Mexico.
Other agents, who were trying to assist, encountered two more northbound pickups, which also turned around and headed toward Mexico.
The first agent, following the pickup with the felony alert, encountered a fourth pickup parked just north of the border. As the agent approached the truck, occupants fired 11 shots with an assault rifle and a handgun.
As the agent tried to head for safety, a fifth pickup deliberately slammed his marked patrol car, then fled into Mexico.
Three pickups made it to Mexico. Another pickup was intercepted by a Border Patrol helicopter about a quarter-mile north of the border. Its occupants abandoned it and fled across the border.
The pickup from which the shots were fired, which was reported stolen in Scottsdale, blew a tire about a mile north of the border and was abandoned.
The occupants fled. Agents seized 325 pounds of marijuana from the abandoned trucks.
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