US border agent hit, killed by suspect's car

Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:30pm EST

PHOENIX Jan 19 (Reuters) - A U.S. Border Patrol agent trying to stop a suspected drug smuggler was struck and killed by the suspect's car in southern California on Saturday, border police said.

The unidentified agent was hit as he tried to stop a sport utility vehicle on a road about 20 miles (32 km) west of Yuma, Arizona, at around 9:30 a.m. local time, Border Patrol agent Jeremy Schappell said.

"The agent was laying a spike strip across the road when the vehicle swerved and struck him. He died at the scene," Schappell said in a telephone interview.

He said Border Patrol agents had been pursuing two vehicles that were suspected of smuggling narcotics north from Mexico, near the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, in southeast California.

After the incident, both vehicles fled the scene.

The dead agent's name was not released by the patrol.

Last year, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 880,000 people crossing illegally from Mexico and seized hundreds of tons of narcotics.




Comments (0)
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.