Sheriff from Texas, who was among the first persons who reached the U.S. border agents who were recently injured, thinks that the agents might have been sideswiped accidentally by a tractor-trailer and not attacked, like it was previously reported. The agents were found injured on November 18 near the border with Mexico and some media and President Donald Trump suggested that they were attacked. One of the agents, Rogelio Martinez, died, while his partner was seriously injured and does not remember what happened.
The agents might have been accidentally sideswiped by a tractor-trailer, Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carrillo thinks. He explains that many accidents happen on Interstate-10, which is a heavily traveled route for truck drivers, the Associated Press reports.
“From the beginning we were radioed to assist in the incident as an injury, not an assault. That’s the way it was communicated to us. If this was an assault, believe me, as sheriff, I’d be the first one out there emphasizing safety in our community and with our deputies, pairing them up,” Carrillo told The Dallas Morning News.
It is not known why the two agents were along the highway. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s statement, they were responding to activity. National Border Patrol Council, President Trump, Senator Ted Cruz and Texas Governor Greg Abbott have all said that the pair was attacked. Trump even used the incident to call once again for a border wall.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced a 45,000 dollars reward for information that would help the authorities solve the mystery surrounding Martinez’s death. FBI officials said last week that investigators were treating the incident as a potential assault, but other scenarios were not excluded. Annabel Salazar, chief investigator at the El Paso medical examiner’s office said that full autopsy may not be known for weeks and added that preliminary results suggest that Martinez died of head injuries.
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