Officer Down

[johnh]

It is with great sadness that I have to make this post.

I've just found out that my good friend and FLETC classmate, U.S. Park Ranger Kris Eggle, was shot and killed today in Arizona along the Mexican border. I don't know anymore details about the incident right now, I've heard that he may have been investigating a suspicous vehicle reported by a Customs helicopter and may have killed by a rifle round.

Without a doubt, Kris was one of the finest people I've ever known. He was our class president and received the FLETC Director's award - an award selected by his classmates for the individual who represents the highest values in law enforcement.

Kris was the kind of guy you'd want your sister to marry. He was active in his church, led youth groups, and was a collegiate athlete, running track at Michigan State. (He almost broke the FLETC record for the 1.5 mile run - completing it in 7:13 - just shy of the record)

I don't know what else to say at this point, I will post funeral info when it becomes available should anyone want to attend the services.

[996s]

I am sorry to hear about the loss. My thoughts are with his family.

[CajunCop]

This has been an awful couple of months for all of law enforcement. I lead off with a USCS inspector that died in Gramercy, LA last October. The death of the young USCS special agent out of Chicago, IL from an apparent brain aneurysm. The horrible injury of a USCS CEO Rios from S. Texas that was run over by an idiot in a stolen local police car. CEO Rios has been progressing, but has lost a leg in the incident. Lastly, a New Orleans Police officer that was shot last week during a botched robbery.

Say a prayer for all these Law Enforcement officers.

Remember that these are your brothers in blue no matter what position you are in or hope to be in.

[kennethm3]

Here is the news article:

Tucson Citizen
Aug. 10, 2002
A National Park Service park ranger was shot and killed yesterday while pursuing a Mexican national in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
The ranger, who was not identified pending notification of next of kin, was shot by a man who fled Mexico after a run-in with police there, said David Hutson, chief of interpretation and visitor services at Organ Pipe.
The Mexican national also was fired upon and killed, but officials yesterday were uncertain who shot him.
Officials said the incident began in rugged desert just east of Lukeville, a port of entry about 40 miles south of Ajo.
Mexican officials contacted U.S. Customs yesterday afternoon to report two men who fled north out of Mexico into the park, Hutson said. Officials did not know why the men fled Mexico.
Roger Maier, a U.S. Customs spokesman, said officials with his agency and the Immigration and Naturalization Service received the call and notified area authorities.
The ranger, who worked as a law enforcement officer at the park, and three U.S. Border Patrol agents responded to the reports as a Border Patrol helicopter searched for the men, Hutson said.
The helicopter spotted the men's vehicle about a half mile from the border, officials said, and agents arrested one of the men without incident soon after.
Agents in the helicopter spotted the second man a short time later and directed the park ranger to him, Hutson said. The man opened fire on the ranger when he approached him, striking him below his body armor at least once.
Border Patrol agents then helped carry the ranger to a nearby road, said Ryan Scudder, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman.
Although an emergency flight from Tucson was arranged, the ranger was pronounced dead while being taken from the scene by ambulance, Hutson said.
The ranger was one of less than a dozen workers at Organ Pipe. The tight-knit crew mourned the loss of one of their own last night.
"With a small overall staff, we're all pretty close here, so you can imagine what it's like," Hutson said.
Organ Pipe was labeled the most dangerous in the national park system, according to a 2001 national survey conducted by the Fraternal Order of Police chapter for park rangers.
The park also has become a bustling corridor for people and drug smugglers from Mexico into the United States during the past decade.
Officials yesterday said the last two months have shown an increase in violence and firepower smugglers are willing to use to get their loads of drugs or people through the park.
Maier said agents working at the park have seen smugglers who wear body armor and carry AK-47 assault rifles.
"It's a dangerous area. Smugglers are taking extreme measures to guard and protect their loads," Maier said.
Last year, authorities intercepted 200,000 migrants and 700,000 pounds of drugs in Organ Pipe. Between five and eight law enforcement rangers typically patrol the 330,000-acre park, which borders Mexico for 31 miles.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument's visitor center will be closed tomorrow, as will all scenic drives with the exception of Ajo Mountain Drive, Hutson said.

[kennethm3]

Another article with more info:

Ranger killed in shootout
Death linked to hit squad that killed 4, officials say
By Ignacio Ibarra and Tim Steller
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
A National Park Service ranger at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was killed in a shootout with suspected smugglers Friday afternoon, said deputy Nicole Feldt of the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

At least one other man, believed to be a Mexican citizen, was also shot and killed and another was in custody, said Edward "Bud" Tuffly, president of the union of Border Patrol agents in Southern Arizona.

The ranger's identity was being withheld Friday pending family notification.

Mexican officials said the shooting is linked to a quadruple murder that occurred in Mexico on Thursday.

Thursday night, federal police arrested a 19-year-old who said he had participated in the contract murder of four people, said Miguel Francisco Lopez Castro, regional head of the Sonoran Attorney General's Office.

The man, Jesus Martin Yescas Zazueta, said he had come from Tijuana to carry out those killings and others for someone nicknamed "El Zarco," Lopez Castro said.

About 9 a.m. Friday, police found the four bodies about 10 miles west of Sonoyta, Lopez Castro said. Three of the victims had their arms tied behind their backs and a gunshot to the head. The other victim was untied and shot multiple times.

After that discovery, 60 officers were called in from around Sonora to look for the suspected mastermind and avert further confrontations between the hit men and their remaining targets.

Officers found "El Zarco," whose real name is Panfilo Murillo Aguila, about 1 p.m. Friday just southeast of the Lukeville port of entry.

Shooting ensued, and Mexican officials called authorities to warn them Murillo Aguila and a companion were heading north.

The ranger who was killed and Border Patrol agents were in the area when Murillo Aguila and the companion reached the border. The ranger was responding with U.S. Border Patrol agents to a call for assistance from Mexican authorities about three miles east of Lukeville, according to Dale Thompson, chief park ranger at Organ Pipe National Monument.

It's unclear whether it was Murillo Aguila or his companion who was killed by the gunfire. The survivor was arrested by U.S. authorities.

The incident is under investigation by the Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI, which did not return phone calls to its Phoenix office Friday.

Reports of the shooting's exact location varied, but Feldt said it took place near Puerto Blanco Loop Drive, a dirt road that runs through the national monument west of Arizona 85.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Ryan Scudder in Tucson confirmed that U.S. Border Patrol agents were on the ground and in a helicopter overhead when the shooting occurred, but referred all other questions to the Sheriff's Department and FBI.

Tuffly said a Border Patrol agent and the ranger were together on foot, although not necessarily near one another, when the shooting occurred.

"He was helping the Border Patrol and got shot for it," Tuffly said. "They help us out a lot when they can, but that's not part of his job description, interdicting smugglers down by the port of entry. But if we need backup, they'll help us out. It's real unfortunate."

The park ranger, a commissioned law enforcement officer, was armed and wearing body armor at the time, Thompson said.

He said the weapon that killed the ranger was a rifle. The ranger was one of four Park Service rangers assigned to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

In Washington, the National Park Service released a statement: "We regret to inform that an NPS law enforcement ranger was shot and killed in the line of duty this afternoon while pursuing two armed suspects along the U.S.-Mexican border. We will provide further details when they become available."

[kennethm3]

And another with more info:

Blast from bushes killed ranger
By Tim Steller
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

EJIDO LOPEZ MATEOS, Sonora - National Park Service Ranger Kris Eggle was rushing toward a gunman hidden in bushes, just north of the Mexican border, when a burst of gunfire from the bushes cut him down, witnesses and officials said.

A few minutes later, the gunman moved several yards from his hiding place and was spotted by Mexican officers, who unleashed a barrage of gunfire from the south side of the border, witnesses said. The gunman died right away, and Eggle died soon after, before an emergency helicopter arrived.

American officials said Saturday that it was possible the gunman was shot by Mexican or American officers, but witnesses in this rural village two miles east of Lukeville said Mexican officers did the shooting. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, three residents said they saw only Mexican officers fire on the gunman, from the Mexican side.

Dozens of shell casings littered the ground Saturday in the area where - according to witnesses - Mexican officers fired.

Eggle, a ranger in Organ Pipe National Monument, was 27 and had several yearsexperience, a National Park Service statement said.

The Mexican town of Sonoyta bristled with heavy weapons in the wake of the gunfight. Dozens of local, state and federal officers, many of them armed with automatic weapons, patrolled the city. At the heavily guarded federal police office, an officer trained his rifle on a pair of men who drove up to deliver water.

The mayor was absent, having left town for a day or two because of death threats, said Juan Gabriel Vazquez Nido, the chief of Sonoyta police.

The edgy atmosphere stemmed from a series of violent incidents that ended with the gunman's shooting Friday. It started about 1 a.m. Thursday, when a Sonoyta police officer pulled over a Dodge Ram with Washington state plates, Vazquez Nido said.

"The officer stopped the car for speeding, and he (the driver) got out with an AK-47," Vazquez Nido said.

The gunman opened fire on the officer, striking his vehicle 14 times and hitting the officer in the arm, Vazquez Nido said. He said the gunman was "El Zarco," the nickname for a man other officials called Panfilo Murillo Aguila. Murillo Aguila also may have been the man who shot Eggle, said Miguel Francisco López Castro, the regional delegate of the Sonoran Attorney General's Office.

Thursday night, federal officers arrested a military deserter, 19-year-old Jesus Martin Yescas Zazueta, who admitted taking part in the execution-style killings of four men west of Sonoyta, said López Castro. Officers found the bodies Friday.

Yescas Zazueta told officers he came from Tijuana as part of a group of contract killers, López Castro said. They were acting on behalf of Murillo Aguila, López Castro said.

The Hermosillo newspaper El Imparcial reported Saturday, citing the Sonoran attorney general, that Murillo Aguila was a target of the hit squad. He was not the man who hired the killers, the newspaper said.

Whatever Murillo Aguila's role, officers were searching for him Friday and found him around 1 p.m. near the farming village of Ejido Lopez Mateos.

Six witnesses described parts of the incident Saturday. Their stories largely jibed with one another and with a general description released by the National Park Service. One man watched the incident, which he estimated lasted two hours, from atop a 30-foot water tank with a sweeping view. The witnesses said:

At about 1:30 p.m., two Sonoran police vehicles chased a gray SUV in which Murillo Aguila was traveling. One police vehicle followed the SUV across the border and another stayed on the Mexican side, as officers fired at the SUV.

The SUV stopped among trees about 100 yards north of the border and gunmen fired back, scattering the officers. The SUV traveled east to another group of trees, then American agents arrived and consulted with Mexican officers at the border. The SUV took off to the northeast.

About three-fourths of a mile north of the border, a Border Patrol helicopter spotted the SUV and swooped down on it, hovering just over the roof. The SUV turned west and got stuck.

Two men got out and ran in different directions. The helicopter followed one man northwest, and agents on the ground arrested him. The other man went southeast, following a wooded arroyo, as the helicopter circled the area seeking him.

After about a half-hour, the helicopter sounded a loud beep that seemed to signal the gunman was below.

A green-dressed officer, apparently Eggle, was one of the closest at about 75 yards away. He ran toward the spot where the helicopter hovered and was shot. Officers soon spotted the gunman and opened fire, killing him.

The National Park Service account differed from the witness account mainly in that it described the two suspects as leaving the SUV together.

In June, the Fraternal Order of Police, U.S. Park Rangers Lodge, ranked Organ Pipe as the most dangerous park in the United States because of the prevalence of drug smugglers and illegal border crossers, as well as the relatively few rangers. It was the second year in a row the group ranked Organ Pipe most dangerous.

A funeral for Eggle was scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at the Baptist church in Ajo. A family memorial service will be held in Michigan, officials said.

[TEXASBPA]

You would think that eventually the politicos and D.C. whiners would realize how unsecure our borders are. This is just another prime example of how out-gunned we are, on our own border for God's sake. It's sad that it always takes a tragedy like this to bring out the facts. The letter that was written by the PA in Ajo does a real good job of explaining how we feel when we head "out on the line" each day. It is my hope that someday. the pundits in Washington will realize what's going on down here. Unfortuanately, I know that not even another tragic death will get them to take notice, at least not until a Mexican army platoon marchs into their living room and opens fire.

[K9 Police]

"The death of the young USCS special agent out of Chicago, IL from an apparent brain aneurysm. "

In memory of Scott R. Geissler, a fallen hero to many who wish their dreams come true, as they did for him.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God... Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great..." - Matthew 5:3-12

WE MISS YOU BUDDY!!!

K9

[ArLawman]

May GOD be with him and his family. When is enough going to be enough. We need to reclaim our borders and our country. Just my two cents worth.

ArLawman:(